The socialists have found Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s Achilles’ heel in the penthouse that the Community of Madrid bought in the elegant Madrid neighborhood of Chamberí. The PSOE is not going to miss the opportunity to exploit this vein and, despite being in the middle of the holiday period, has requested an “urgent” meeting of the permanent deputation of the Assembly of Madrid so that the president of the Community can give explanations about this controversial purchase.
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What the socialists want is for Díaz Ayuso to “urgently answer all the questions that the people of Madrid are asking and tell us where the motivation for that purchase is and where the tender for the supposed works in Sol is,” according to the socialist spokesperson in the Assembly, Mar Espinar.
Furthermore, the Madrid PSOE considers that the operation to purchase the penthouse may “compromise the principles of transparency and legality.” It adds that the acquisition of the Chamberí apartment “is not included in the annual budget nor is there an extension of credit approved by the Government Council for that extraordinary expense.” It also reproaches the Madrid Government that the purchase “lacks publicity on the transparency portal, on the public procurement portal, and in the inventory of real estate assets of the Community.”
The controversy broke out when last week El País published that the Community of Madrid had bought a luxury penthouse of about 485 square meters on the central General Martínez Campos street in the Spanish capital. The Madrid Government explained that the property was going to be used temporarily as an office and meeting place for the president and her team while the official headquarters of the Presidency, the Royal House of Post Offices, located in Puerta del Sol, is rehabilitated.
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The controversy quickly erupted. The opposition questioned the purchase as it was a luxury penthouse in one of the best-valued areas of Madrid. It also emphasized that the property only has residential use and, therefore, cannot be used as an office as the president and her team intended. Additionally, the controversial penthouse is located near where Ayuso and her partner live, which fueled all kinds of speculation about a possible use different from the announced one.
Díaz Ayuso was quick to end the controversy and put an end to those speculations by announcing that she was going to put that penthouse and other apartments that the Community of Madrid owns on Gran Vía in the capital up for sale and that the money raised from those transactions will be used to help those affected by the tragic fires that the Community of Madrid experienced in July. But the opposition has already found Díaz Ayuso’s Achilles’ heel and does not want to let go of its prey, so it has proposed that urgent meeting of the Permanent Deputation that will force the president to give new explanations and to be once again the protagonist of headlines because of the controversial penthouse.
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