Madrid's Ayuso asks court to clear Puerta del Sol camp now

Tents removed at Sol, Ayuso goes to court: the camp is left without tents

Crews began with the tents occupying the roadway. Madrid's Puerta del Sol proge up to the removal of structures that, according to the argument being repeated, could block emergency services from getting through. The Madrid regional government has not waited to settle it through administrative channels: it has announced it is going to court to clear kilometre zero, while the Government Delegation kept the camp standing after its own ultimatum expired.

What is being removed at Puerta del Sol?

The operation has two clearly distinct layers. One is material: the tents invading the roadway are being removed, an argument the Administration itself repeats —emergency vehicles must be able to pass— and one that is hard to dispute on paper. The other is symbolic: talking about cleaning up an occupied square amounts to saying no one should be there at all.

On the ground, the accounts do not match. There is no human tide, some insist, just tents and canopies that conceal precisely the absence of people. Others reply that the daily disinfection is a gesture undone as fast as it is done, and that the square remains in use every day.

Ayuso takes the eviction to court

The decisive move is legal. The Madrid regional government has announced an appeal before the administrative courts with a request for urgent interim measures to order the immediate clearing of kilometre zero. The trigger was the expiry of the 48-hour ultimatum without the eviction taking place.

The standoff pits two administrations against each other. The regional government wants to act now; the Government Delegation, so far, has not evicted anyone. Requesting interim measures is a way of bypassing that inaction through the courts: these are measures decided with extreme urgency, without ordinary proceedings. If the judge grants them, the eviction stops being a political decision and becomes an order.

Is there really a camp at Sol?

The question divides opinion. One camp argues that what is in the square is a camp of empty tents, with canopies to hide the fact that no one is inside, adding that any comparison with the 15M movement is ridiculous given the numbers. On the other side, another view holds that the square being occupied every day is enough for it to count as a camp, and that the disinfectant is a hygiene gesture, not an argument.

There are also those demanding drastic measures against the campers —hoses included— in dismissive language the issue does not need. That angle does nothing to support the clean-up thesis.

The boycott of a tribute to Ceuta

A dispute over the narrative has been added to the dispute over the space. As circulated on social media, during a tribute to Ceuta, the projection of images attacking the regional government, with president Ayuso and mayor Almeida in the crosshairs, turned an official event into a showcase for protest. For some, it is proof that the camp pursues a defined political goal rather than a concrete demand. For others, it is exactly what you would expect from a demonstration: getting the message across at the moment of maximum visibility.

An expired 48-hour ultimatum, an urgent court filing and tents removed from the roadway, all to decide who is in charge at kilometre zero. The same square occupied during the 15M movement is once again deciding its future in the courts.