“How cool is that, my god!”
– She’s so stuffed that she doesn’t even realize what’s going into her account.
A politician from the PP and another from Vox comment loudly and separately on what is happening before their eyes: the act of remorse by Mónica García, the leader of Más Madrid, who gives a press conference at the Madrid Assembly with a contorted face to acknowledge that she as a large family enjoys the thermal social bonus, and to negotiate the contradiction as best as possible that she has requested the resignation of regional vice president Enrique Ossorio for the very same thing. It’s Thursday and the politician, who will try to oust Isabel Díaz Ayuso from power in the regional elections on May 28, explains that she didn’t know she was a beneficiary of grants that would be received automatically if the electric social premium would also be granted. That the matter was run by her husband. And that he admits his mistake: “I apologize.”
But his ordeal doesn’t end there. First, the government remains in full control: although it is trying to regain initiative, “everything is easier when you are a cynic, you never have an ethical problem because you are unable to admit a mistake and ask forgiveness ‘ he tells the PP ― his rivals are taking advantage of the situation. He spends part of the afternoon on the phone, up the hall, down the hall, in Parliament. And the next day he clears his appointment book. Garcia just detonated a bomb in the middle of the election campaign.
Enrique Ossorio, Vice President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid Daniel Gonzalez (EFE)
“It was a shot in the foot, a boomerang that exploded in the face of Mónica García and Más Madrid,” sums up political scientist Pablo Simón. “If you take the concerns of the voters, there are particularly sensitive issues for the left such as welfare and redistribution,” he explains. “When you get into a scandal of this nature, it undermines you on an issue that you should be strong on, on an issue that is fundamental to you,” he says plentifully. “This erosion occurs in terms of popularity, it carries a greater risk of demobilization and, in the short term, affects the undecided among various left-wing parties,” he elaborates. “In the medium term, it doesn’t have to mean a very deep structural change, but it does mean an erosion that Más Madrid’s rivals will always remember,” he says. And he predicts, ‘Who’s going to play with it? The right, on the side of hypocrisy, but also Podemos because they compete for the same electorate and they will brand them as incoherent, which can affect the undecided between the two formations.
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Wednesday 15 García begins the day with an important call for his party, presenting the main lines of his campaign. It is at 10:00 a.m. By then, the Ossorio scandal had already broken out: Díaz Ayuso’s number two is the beneficiary of the electric and thermal social bonus because he is a member of a large family, even though he earns an annual salary of 104,928.60 euros and has an inheritance of more than one million euros. Garcia does not hesitate. Strongly demand his resignation. The problem occurs around 1:45 p.m.
“They granted the electric social bonus,” a journalist begins her question to Ossorio during the government council’s press conference held that day in Collado Villalba. “The funny thing is that Mónica García is also the husband,” he continues. “More Madrid has requested his resignation [la de Ossorio]”, adding. “I ask him if he thinks these are two cases that fit the concept of a vulnerable consumer.”
Díaz Ayuso, listening to the question along with his number two, remains ojiplática. Osori too. And immediately the phone number of García’s spokesman begins to burn. “Is it true that García also enjoys the dispute bonus?”, the questions agree.
The President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso Carlos Luján (Europa Press)
“We came in a hurry from a presentation where everything had gone very well and suddenly this comes out: a slap in the face,” photographed a member of the opposition leader’s hard core.
Because there is “a continuous loop of calls”. constant questions. But the spokesman for the leader of Más Madrid knows nothing. And neither do they. Without panicking, she tries to locate her husband, who is handling the matter and who is on an international trip. Thus, the president of Más Madrid keeps the working lunch she had with a journalist, her spokesman and her campaign manager at the Tierra by Ezzential restaurant, a few steps from the Congress of Deputies. Then García picks up her daughter from school and returns home to wait for her son. In light of the controversy, she will be joined by the two members of her team with whom she ate, in addition to her campaign spokesman Javier Padilla and two other advisers.
The minutes tick by as some of them eat loin, cheese and tomato sandwiches that they bought “on the run” at a nearby bar. You swallow them with some water. You think about what to do.
“We screwed it up, how can we fix it? That’s where it starts,” explains one of García’s companions at the time. “From then on, the essential thing was to have solid information to prepare an answer without contradiction and truthfully,” he continues. “It skimmed everything,” he adds. “And he went into overdrive, he didn’t want to make it feel like we’re hiding like ostriches or burying our heads under the ground,” he says. “Mónica was 100 million things away with a need to clear things up.”
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By then, the leader of Más Madrid has already received worrying news from Vice President Yolanda Díaz and Más País leader Iñigo Errejón. And the confirmation comes: yes, says her husband, they calculate the heat bonus because it is automatically granted to all families who receive the electricity bonus.
pitcher of cold water. And action-reaction. Garcia doesn’t sit still. Make a statement. And he gives an interview to Cadena SER during prime time: “I didn’t know […] I’m the first surprised […] I don’t apologize I acknowledge the mistake. I don’t want to calculate that. I do not need it. We have always defended an income criterion [para dar ayudas]. I’ll study if there’s a way to return it,” he admits.
The general secretary of the PP Madrid, Alfonso Serrano, Alberto Ortega (Europa Press)
Thursday 16. The expectation is maximum in the Madrid Assembly. “What happened is a little candy for the PP’s discourse that Mónica is a hypocrite living in retirement while she says what she says,” says a politician used to analyzing party strategies who are represented in the Chamber.
The PP tries to seize the moment: “It’s a terrible week for the left of the Community of Madrid”, celebrates Alfonso Serrano, the general secretary of the PP in Madrid, who with these 12 words reflects how different the impact is on the bonus controversy is right and left. For it has been established that he is also a beneficiary of this aid. And that it is also the category of particularly vulnerable people, who should not have been included when applying the income criteria. But in the PP nobody thinks they should apologize. Neither he nor Ossorio.
García will soon arrive in Parliament to review his plenary speech and the previous press conference. This takes place in the so-called flag area, a few meters from the chamber, and attracts more spectators than ever. It’s not just journalists. Vox and PP MPs listen. Even some of Díaz Ayuso’s advisors devote a few words to the situation. Garcia hears nothing about it. He answers questions. Assume an error. Excuse me. At the level of his Via Crucis.
She is then interviewed on Al Rojo Vivo, a program by La Sexta, to conclude the tour of explanations that had started on the radio the night before.
Friday the 17th. The next day, nothing is on the official agenda of the leader of Más Madrid. Not even on Saturday. Not on Sunday. Desert. Planned rest time before the argument, according to her team. A breather at the end of an unexpected crisis.
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