Ayuso and the wearing down of her leadership in Madrid: the debate

Ayuso and the wearing down of her leadership in Madrid: the debate

The President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, faces a scenario of growing political wear and tear, according to an analysis circulating among observers. One participant argues that her profile has been fading ever since she was «latin», that is, since she adopted a more moderate stance on immigration that has satisfied neither her hard-line electoral base nor her critics. The paradox, on this view, is obvious: the woman once hailed as the scourge of sanchismo now sees part of her electorate perceive her as part of the problem.

A leadership that never quite takes shape

The most repeated diagnosis is that of a leader with no project of her own beyond holding on to office. She is described as a politician inclined to believe that the territory she governs is her own private fiefdom to exploit at will, a portrait that, according to some analyses, she shares with much of the political class produced by Spain's 1978 regime. The criticism does not come only from the left: some argue her management is terrible and her oratory that of a seven-year-old girl.

Yet the electoral arithmetic contradicts the wear and tear. If the best her opponent can offer is a candidate with the face of a paedophile priest, in one of the most repeated descriptions, the conclusion is that the Madrid premier will keep governing for another four years. What is more, the fragmentation of the left —Podemos, Sumar, Más Madrid— fighting to place their own candidates reinforces that impression.

The «laquiero» as a political thermometer

Part of the analysis focuses on the president's more personal and aesthetic dimension. Comments about her physical attractiveness abound, with expressions like «laquiero» repeated ad nauseam. Some find her «very appealing» and others joke that they would not mind her «until one of the two dies». This kind of commentary, anecdotal in other contexts, works here as a thermometer of popular support that goes beyond ideology.

The other side of that coin is the perception of coldness or distance. She is described as a «frigid big-bottomed woman» with great popularity in Spain, a judgement that mixes the aesthetic with the political. The image she projects, between the luxury of her penthouses and her personal life, fuels both admiration and rejection.

A left that fails to offer an alternative

The harshest analysis is aimed at the opposition. It is claimed that Ayuso's fiercest critics obsessively devote themselves to a regional matter on a television channel that should be covering things that interest all Spaniards. Meanwhile, on this view, the real political and social corruption lies with other actors and their families, of whom not a single word is said.

The conclusion of this analysis is that the left is on the verge of losing Spain by focusing on Madrid. Outside Madrid, the regional president counts for nothing, and yet she occupies a disproportionate space in the media agenda. That anomaly, they argue, will be studied in the future as an unprecedented case.

The accusations of instrumentalisation and the migration factor

Another current of analysis goes further and places Ayuso as part of a broader system. It is argued that she is another agent of the System and an immigrationist, an accusation framed within a more general theory about immigration. On this view, the masters will replace us one way or another, and to mislead the sheeple two camps are created: the left loves migrants and the right loves the «latin». The writer of this argues that you must choose who you want to eliminate you.

These theses, which are not backed by evidence, circulate widely in certain circles. The reality is that the Community of Madrid has been a territory with its own migration policy, and that the president has travelled to South America to attract investment and talent, not to bring in migrants. The confusion between attracting and bringing in is a symptom of the noise surrounding the debate.

The future: defeat or write-off?

The question hovering over the whole analysis is whether Ayuso is finished and written off or whether, on the contrary, she remains the only leader capable of mobilising the right in Madrid. The available data suggest that her wear and tear is real but not terminal. The fragmentation of the left and the lack of a clear alternative play in her favour.

Some argue that her only merit is an intuition for the future and stealing everything possible from the pioneers, a description applied to other business and political leaders. The comparison with Bill Gates or Mao Tsetung, with all due distance, serves to illustrate that mediocrity is no obstacle to success. The question is whether Ayuso will be able to turn that success into a project that transcends her own persona.

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With these ingredients, the conclusion is that the Madrid premier remains an enigma. Her wear and tear is evident in certain quarters, but her electoral resilience is no less so. Is she really written off, or simply waiting for her next move?