The deputy mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís, announced this Tuesday that her group will again call “all the people who have told us that they are not going to come to account” in the investigation commission on the alleged espionage on Ayuso, which started This Monday at City Hall. “We are going to call Ayuso, Pablo Casado, Mr. Egea, Félix Bolaños, Ruiz Gallardón and Mr. Catalá again”, whom he has challenged to come “because if there is nothing, let them come and show it to all the people of Madrid.
In his opinion, all those who have refused to testify are “boycotting” with their attitude the work of this body, which is chaired by Ciudadanos. “This commission is being boycotted, it can now be said openly”, Villacís has sentenced after having responded in the Cibeles Plenary to the Mixed Group that he wanted to know if he was satisfied with the “functioning” of this body. “I am happy with the commission and its operation. I believe that thanks to this presidency it is developing in a different way, although I am not happy with the objectives because I believe that they are not being met”, responded to councilor Luis Cueto.
At the first session, held yesterday Monday, only Diego Lozano, CEO of the Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS), attended, from where it is assumed that espionage was ordered to the regional president, who despite being the first to have done so denounced has refused to appear to testify.
Villacís has acknowledged that after hearing Lozano’s testimony, he still has many doubts that this espionage attempt was not commissioned. The leader of Ciudadanos thus added to the anger of the opposition spokesmen who had previously had a scuffle with the mayor of Madrid over the obstacles and “the sticks” that Almeida is putting into the development of the commission.
“If there was nothing, why did Mrs. Ayuso come out saying that she was being investigated?” “And if there was nothing, why did Mr. Casado point out that there was a file regarding Mrs. Ayuso’s brother?” “And why does Mr. Egea come out pointing the same thing?” “If there was nothing, why does Mr. Carromero appear in all those papers? And if there is nothing, why are neither Casado nor Egea nor Carromero nor the communication director of the EMVS any longer in his position? ”, These were the questions that Villacís raised in his speech in plenary . “Of course there is and we need to find out,” she has sentenced, visibly angry.
Villacís has cried out against this “empty chair policy.” “This is an appeal to political parties. It is true that they do not have an obligation to come, but they do have a moral obligation to attend”, he continued, although acknowledging that no one can force them, only “advise them to come and render accounts to the people of Madrid”. “It is a snub towards the people of Madrid and a lack of respect”, he has opined. Later, he has vindicated Ciudadanos: “We are not a frivolous party. We are not like the PP of Castilla y León”, he has said.
“I am ashamed of this cheap policy that I have seen here today,” the leader of Ciudadanos has reproached left and right. And Luis Cueto, from Recupera Madrid, whose group does not stop challenging her to promote a motion of censure against Almeida, has assured him: “No, I am not going to the PP, Mr. Cueto, we are not all like you.”
Rifirrafe of the mayor with the spokesmen of the opposition
Moments before, the mayor and the spokesmen of the opposition got into a fight with each other precisely on account of the investigation commission. “There is no case. You are making a fool of yourself”, José Luis Martínez-Almeida snapped at him during the rough municipal plenary session that was held this Tuesday in Cibeles, in which both Más Madrid, PSOE and the Mixed Group have asked the mayor for explanations for the constant obstacles that it is putting so that the alleged espionage of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, which she herself denounced, is clarified.
But if there has been a common denominator, it has been knowing why Ángel Carromero resigned. “Say it. Knowing the reasons for that resignation is opening the door to the truth”, Rita Maestre, spokesperson for Más Madrid, snapped at the mayor. “What did Mr. Carromero do for a living? Of course, he was not to coordinate the Madrid Mayor’s Office. He was to ‘fix’, he was to do political plumbing, he was to place members of the New Generations”, she added later.
“This commission despite you is going to reach the end and I ask you not to make your end of this commission coincide with your political end.” “Ayuso said that the plot existed and now he asks for more blood.” “Die politically with dignity,” the PSOE spokeswoman, Mar Espinar, asked him in turn.
Faced with pressure, the mayor has revolted and has once again accused the groups of wanting to “set up the circus because there is absolutely nothing. There is no case, no matter how hard they try, that they want to force everything, no matter how much they have an uncontrolled impulse. “As an opposition, you can continue to make a fool of yourself,” he said. The mayor of Madrid has seized on two reports that, according to him, prove that “it has not been possible to prove” any “irregular” or “suspicious” action by any municipal employee: the one prepared by the EMVS Ethics Commission, and the one carried out by the Office against Fraud and Corruption of the Madrid City Council, which despite everything has still not commissioned an external audit to carry out this investigation, as the opposition has reminded it.
The alderman has denied that he is hindering the work of the commission and pointed out that “any person with the object of the investigation relationship” will go to it, but not those requested by the opposition “for an exercise of harassment and harassment.” He has also said that all the documentation they have requested will be sent to them, “except for those that the legal reports say cannot be sent.” Maestre and Espinar have reproached him for refusing to provide them with “the audio files, or the payments, or the agendas, or the records” of people who attended the municipal Housing and Land company during the key months.
The Mixed Group insists on the motion of censure
The spokesman for the Mixed Group, José Manuel Calvo -who was supposed to be Almeida’s new allies-, has joined the chorus of criticism from the other groups, except Vox, whose spokesman has supported the mayor about whom he has said ” not understand” why he appeared in this plenary session since the investigation commission is chaired by Ciudadanos and in his opinion he is the one that would have to give an account of the work and its development.
Calvo has also confronted the alderman: “He has the golden opportunity to prove that he is serving as mayor again.” “If Carromero doesn’t appear either, is he going to admit his failure? Is he going to put his position at the disposal of Villacís? Is he going to resign? ”, He has asked. “Today he could have shown that he is mayor but he is still the spokesman for the PP, what a disappointment.” Calvo, later returned to make an appeal to the other groups “to change the government of this city.” “Let’s consider the serious and real possibility of raising a motion of censure”, he has specially invited the deputy mayor Begoña Villacís. “The numbers are plenty. We can come to an agreement to clear the name of the town hall”, she stated.
His intervention has provoked a harsh response from Almeida. The mayor has accused Calvo of having a “lust for power” and has reminded him of his past in the government of Manuel Carmena. “They didn’t have the decency or the dignity.” “Keep up this opposition. But when we need them, they will be there again”, he mocked, reproaching them for talking about proposing a motion of censure “in a city that has grown more than the average for all of Spain and has brought in more investment”.
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