“The apartment is for sale, so goodbye fish.” Isabel Díaz Ayuso has tried to close the controversy over the purchase, for more than six million euros, of a luxury penthouse in Chamberí by a public company of the Community of Madrid and for a use that has not yet been explained. After weeks of shaping various justifications and when the arguments presented by her Government have not even convinced the president of her party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Madrid president has chosen to downplay the matter to try to close it before the start of the political season.
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Literally, Ayuso has lamented that “If we ask everyone who returns from vacation, the gum will be stretched until June next year.” The only detail that Ayuso herself did not take into account in the press conference she gave from the San Juan reservoir to learn about the damage caused by the July fires in the Sierra Oeste, is that the last to speak was none other than the president of her party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The leader of the PP stated, in an interview granted to Europa Press, that he became aware that the Community was looking for offices to temporarily house the Presidency of the Madrid Government while repairs were being made to the Casa de Correos, the official headquarters of the Community. The PP leader specified that offices were being sought and pointed out that the Heritage of the Community of Madrid will have to explain why a property that “could not be used as an office” was finally purchased.
“It is evident that the Heritage of the Community of Madrid will have to explain why it bought a premises that cannot be used as an office with the intention that an office would be located there. That is all,” Feijóo said. His words thus raised a specific doubt about an operation that the Community has tried to justify for weeks and that has now again placed Ayuso in an uncomfortable position.
Asked about the statements of her party leader, the Madrid president avoided direct confrontation. But she also did not respond to the doubts raised by Feijóo. “They ask Feijóo and Feijóo answers,” Ayuso replied, before lamenting that she then has to answer again. “The gum cannot be stretched any further,” she reproached the journalists. “We could go on like this until June next year.”
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Ayuso’s strategy has therefore been to downplay Feijóo’s statement without confronting him. The president has insisted that the property is “intended for offices,” that it can house offices, and that it is currently in the process of being sold. But the underlying problem has not disappeared: the penthouse, according to the urban planning regulations of the Madrid City Council, cannot be converted into an office as it is the ninth floor of a residential building in Chamberí.
The Community has now put the property up for sale for 6.69 million euros, after announcing that the funds obtained will be allocated to the reconstruction of the areas affected by the fires in the Sierra Oeste. The sale may allow recovering the investment, and even obtaining a capital gain over the purchase price. But it does not answer the question that Feijóo has left on the table: why was a property that could not be used for that purpose bought as a possible temporary headquarters of the Presidency.
An argument that the opposition explains by the “nervousness” residing in the regional government. “They have tried to shake off the pressure by saying that, by being for sale, everything is already justified,” they point out. But, they also warn, “you cannot disregard the law or legal procedures. Just because something is for sale does not mean you can buy it simply by writing a check with a public company.”
The sale of the apartment may allow the Community to recover, at least partially, the six million invested. But it does not by itself resolve the questions about an operation that has been carried out through a public company whose purposes clash, according to its critics, with the characteristics of the property. Putting it up for sale may close the real estate chapter. Not necessarily the political crisis that has accompanied the purchase.
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