The head of Más Madrid, Mónica García.SERGIO PÉREZ (EFE)
The protests in which the opposition parties of the Community of Madrid have been simmering all weekend exploded this Monday after the meeting of the speakers of the Regional Assembly. In a rare example of unanimity, the right and the left, Vox, Más Madrid and PSOE come together to criticize the law on measures to simplify and improve the effectiveness of institutions and organizations of the Community of Madrid, registered on Friday by the PP. and that will allow the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso to control the Chamber of Accounts, the Transparency Council and public television and radio in the region. In fact, in an unexpected pirouette, Rocío Monasterio, the speaker of the extreme right in the Madrid parliament, compares the conservative leader with the government president Pedro Sánchez (PSOE). The biggest shame for them.
More information
“If we saw these reforms carried out by Sánchez on public television, the Chamber of Accounts and the Chamber of Commerce, we would feel bad,” stressed Monasterio this Monday, without them in the Assembly after two legislative periods in which he voted importance were crucial for the PP to implement its legislative proposals. “Ms Ayuso here may have confused absolute majority with absolutism,” he continued. “And that’s why he’s introducing it now, when we need to focus on things that affect the nation.”
An argument that Juan Lobato, the leader of the PSOE in Madrid, agrees with. “They present it taking advantage of today’s time when the media is focused on the investiture [de Sánchez]”also said the senator. “And they do it in order to sneak in through the back door the dissolution of the Transparency Council, the Accounts Chamber or the possibility that one day there will be a plural Telemadrid at the service of the people of Madrid,” he added. “I show my complete rejection.”
“It is a definitive attack on Telemadrid,” complained Mónica García of Más Madrid. “Change the Chamber of Accounts, I assume they don’t like oversight, the Transparency Council, to make the data and all their policies opaque; They are eliminating the law of good government and good management, which was never taken into account because the hospital management probably thinks that they must also have the PP card,” he explained.
The law, supported by the PP, which has an absolute majority in the Assembly and can approve it under emergency procedure, introduces the following changes.
What influences the most is what happens next. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to
New director for Telemadrid. “In order to avoid lengthy transition situations, the election procedure for the Director General will be changed,” defends the PP in its text. Previously, this designation depended on the assembly, which required consensus between the government and the opposition. Now the appointment is for four years and on the proposal of the company’s Board of Directors, whose members are elected by the Madrid Assembly from those proposed by the parliamentary groups and according to their political weight. This means the majority party will dominate. A summary of how Díaz Ayuso has controlled public television since he came to power. Ciudadanos defended a legal reform that forced a political agreement. After the 2021 elections, in which this party failed to achieve representation, the PP allied with Vox to change the rule, dismissing the current leadership, which Díaz Ayuso accused of acting against him, and appointing an interim administrator, a newly created person who was intended to circumvent the need to obtain a sufficient majority to appoint a director.
The post is held by José Antonio Sánchez, an avowed PP voter who has admitted to appearing in Bárcenas’ newspapers and whom PP and Vox have kept in office by opposing a proposal from the board to appoint a new general manager to her vetoed. In addition, this Council must be renewed in the first quarter following the adoption of the new regulation, while the new President must be appointed no later than six months after this positive treatment in the Chamber.
A government-elected Transparency Council. The Transparency and Participation Council consists of three council members who are appointed by the Presidium of the Assembly on a proposal from the plenary session of the Chamber with a three-fifths majority. Their term of office is six years, with the presidency changing every two years. Until now. With the reform of the PP, the body that resolves complaints about the transparency of the executive will be headed by a person appointed by the same executive, its only member, as the number of council members increases from three to one. And it is specified: “Its dependence on the Assembly is eliminated.” The conservative formation justifies that the reform includes the provision of a “technical support unit”, which will lead to a stronger technical character and preserve the independence of the body.
An audit chamber controlled by the ruling party. The PP has been trying since February 2022 to control the Chamber of Accounts, the body that oversees its contracts and spending, and has so far been unsuccessful because it was in the minority, dependent on Vox and the Ultra party opposed it. What happens? Since 2019, members of this public body have been elected by two-thirds of the assembly, which required agreement among all parties without the possibility of lifting the deadlock in the event of disagreement. By justifying this blockade, the conservatives assume that the number of members of the body will decrease from three to seven and that the system for electing the president and council members will be changed in a similar way to the system for electing the executive committee. This means the majority party in the Assembly will control the chamber, as is the case in Parliament. And soon: the realignment must be approved no later than three months after its approval.
Recentralization of appointment allocation for hospital management. The change, promoted by the Conservatives, aims to “return to the Sermas Board of Directors the ability to exercise its powers and select among the best hospital managers, streamlining appointments and thus providing a more responsive response quickly and efficiently to the needs of each hospital center This is how the former PSOE MP and former Health Minister of the Basque Country José Manuel Freire interprets it: “It’s back to the drawing board without accountability.” There will no longer be a public call for tenders, so that everyone can imagine and the citizens can see who wanted the job and who gave it to. “It is a blow to the general trend towards good governance and the fight against corruption.”
In addition, the eight-year term of office of the president of the official Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Madrid will be abolished, allowing the current president to remain in power if he wishes.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter about Madrid here.