Ayuso vs. Feijóo: The PP's Crisis and the Madrid Network Case

Ayuso's Offensive Hits Madrid Network Deficit

Few things portray the Popular Party (PP) better than seeing its most voted-for president and its national leader moving in opposite directions for months. The PP's crisis is no longer just a topic for speculation. Isabel Díaz Ayuso publicly states she neither aspires to lead the party nor be a candidate for La Moncloa. Her agenda suggests otherwise. And the ghost of Pablo Casado, ousted after an internal offensive, looms over every appearance.

The issue is complicated by a second front: Madrid Network. The Supreme Court has rejected the Community of Madrid's appeal, forcing it to publish the accounts of the public-private entity launched by Esperanza Aguirre, which has a declared deficit of over 50 million euros and an 80 million euro loan granted by the Zapatero administration and transferred by Aguirre in 2011.

What Ayuso Says About Running for President of the Government

The official answer is no. Ayuso has stated she does not want to be a candidate for president of the government and does not intend to lead the PP. The problem is that this narrative doesn't align with the pattern of recent clashes: foreign policy and Gaza, the train delays versus metro issues, abortion, the judicial front. In each case, the Madrid leader has distanced herself from the national leadership.

Some interpret this pattern as a deliberate strategy of desgaste (wearing down). The most repeated thesis: if Feijóo ignites an issue, Ayuso extinguishes it; if Feijóo seeks balance, she disrupts it; if Feijóo clears a ball, she returns it to his feet. A script that, according to this reading, will eventually backfire on the Galician leader, just as it did on Casado.

Conversely, another current argues the opposite: that the bubble sustaining Ayuso within Madrid is not exportable to the rest of Spain and that her move to national politics would actually be a gift to the PSOE. Spanish Trump or Spanish Meloni are the labels exchanged in this discussion.

Why the Supreme Court is Forcing Madrid Network to Show Its Accounts

Madrid Network is the public-private collaboration entity that Aguirre launched and to which she transferred 80 million euros in 2011 from a low-interest loan granted by the Zapatero administration. The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid had already ordered the release of its annual reports. The Community appealed and the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal.

The infuriating detail: a declared deficit of over 50 million euros in an entity that, on paper, was supposed to channel productive investment. The embarrassing detail: according to published reports, the entity appears on the CVs of Ayuso herself and Vox leader Santiago Abascal, with a remuneration of 4,219 euros per month for three years. It has been suggested that the Madrid government tried to block transparency on these accounts at the Supreme Court.

Gürtel, ERE, and the Selective Accounting of Corruption

In Spain, corruption is measured by two standards. Cases implicating the PP—Gürtel, involving public contracts awarded to companies in exchange for commissions—are remembered by name and surname, to the point of toppling a government. Those affecting the PSOE—the ERE scandal in Andalusia, involving diverted public funds—are dismissed as a minor chapter. The comparison is a classic.

The argument supporting this asymmetry is that the corrupt ones are the politicians who distribute licenses and permits, not those who pay for them. The counterargument is the usual one: no one pays without someone collecting, just as there are no addicts without dealers. No one has closed this circle, and likely no one wants to.

No Candidate: The Void Exploited by Vox and Sánchez

The PP faces the electoral cycle without a clear candidate for La Moncloa. Feijóo has not managed to consolidate this profile, and the expected succession pointed to Andalusia, where the fallout from the cancer diagnostic tests scandal would have taken its toll—an episode some analyses equate in impact to the handling of the DANA (major storm). Vox operates within this vacuum. So does Pedro Sánchez, who, according to a participant in the debate, prefers to face Ayuso rather than Feijóo, because clashing with her weakens the PP leader.

Electoral Calendar Tightens More Than Party Congresses

The PP's internal politics have an expiration date: March 2026, with regional elections in Andalusia and Castilla y León. Depending on the outcome, there may or may not be an early general election. On this chessboard, broad calculations matter more than any congress speech, and Madrid's residents, according to one participant, will continue to have their president as governor until 2027.

The blind spot remains. With Ayuso as the candidate, the scenario her defenders envision is total voter mobilization against her; that drawn by her critics is a historic debacle. Polls are unavailable. The decision, also. And the accounts of Madrid Network remain unpublished.