The secretary general of the PSOE-M, Juan Lobato, was the last of the rivals of Isabel Diaz Ayuso fall in the Madrid Assembly. With him, there are now 15 adversaries that the president of the Community of Madrid has left behind since she became regional leader.
Lobato defeated the mayor of Fuenlabrada in the October 2021 socialist primaries, Javier Ayala. It was the second time Lobato, former mayor of Soto del Real, ran in a primary after competing in 2017 with Jose Manuel Francowho emerged victorious, and Eusebio Gonzalez.
He is also a socialist Angel Gabilondo He was close to winning Madrid’s battle against Ayuso. In 2019, he won the elections. He was the candidate with the most votes, but that was not enough to govern. Ayuso governed with the support of Ciudadanos. Gabilondo repeated in 2021, but Ayuso’s resounding victory pushed him to relinquish his deputy status.
Also at the PSOE, Hana Jalloul He will leave his post as PSOE spokesperson in the Madrid Assembly in 2021. He did so just three days after Juan Lobato’s victory in the party’s primaries in the region. He was also replaced by the latter.
Can
Ayuso’s rivals fell one by one, without exception also in Podemos and Más Madrid. The most notorious case, that of Pablo Iglesias. He ran as a Unidas Podemos candidate in the 2021 regional elections, after resigning as Pedro Sánchez’s second vice president, with the intention of overthrowing the president. Ayuso almost obtained an absolute majority in these elections and was able to govern alone, while Iglesias refused to remain a deputy in the regional Parliament and resigned from all his positions.
Alejandra Jacintocandidate Podemos-IU, also lost the battle against Ayuso in the 2023 regional elections. This formation did not reach 5% of the votes and was excluded from the Assembly.
Isabelle Serraof Podemos, left his seat, and with him the Podemos spokesperson that he would likely have occupied in the Assembly if he had continued in regional politics. His resignation, in June 2021, joined those of Pablo Iglesias and Julio Rodríguez, which highlighted the open crisis of the party.
Also in the purple formation, the one who was spokesperson for the party in the Madrid Assembly, Caroline Alonso, He left his post in 2023 due to Podemos’ refusal to associate with the party of Yolanda Diaz (Add).
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In the ranks of Más Madrid, the most popular departure was that of Iñigo Errejon, now charged with alleged crimes of sexual abuse. Errejón ran as a candidate in the 2019 elections to try to end the PP’s hegemony in the Community of Madrid, which had already lasted 24 years. The Popular Party lost in the elections, but managed to obtain a majority with Ciudadanos and Vox for the nomination of Ayuso, who formed a coalition with the Orange Party.
Errejón served as spokesperson for Más Madrid for three months in the Assembly. He took advantage of the electoral rehearsal for the November 2019 general elections to leave the regional parliament and present himself as a candidate for president of the Más País government.
The more Madrid tried to beat Ayuso with Monique Garcia as a candidate for the Community, first in 2021 and 2023, but everything ended in frustration for the left, faced with an increasingly rapid rise in power of the Madrid president and which led to her absolute majority in May 2023. In November of the same year, García joined the government as Minister of Health, from where she continued to try to wear down her Madrid opponent.
Claire Serra He also resigned from his post as an MP More from Madrid to the Assembly in October 2019, with Ayuso already serving as regional president. The one who was number 2 in the candidacy led by Iñigo Errejón, left office with a very critical message against the formation: “I do not agree with the way in which Más País is going to participate in the general elections”, a- he assured.
Citizens
Ayuso sometimes had to face rivals within the government itself, as happened with Ignacio Aguadode Ciudadanos, who served as vice-president and advisor to the coalition government chaired by Ayuso between 2019 and 2021.
Things did not go well in this political relationship and Ayuso ended up moving forward the regional elections to May 4, 2021, given the risk that Ciudadanos would promote a motion of censure alongside the PSOE. Aguado abandoned politics after the Ciudadanos electoral disaster and left his party a year later.
Also Cesar Zafra He resigned in May 2021 from all his functions within the Orange formation, just one day after Aguado’s departure from the party. Zafra made this decision after his party failed to gain representation in the Madrid Assembly after the 4M elections.
Finally, the candidate Edmundo Ballcould not get a seat because his party did not get 5 percent of the vote and also left the Madrid parliament.
Voice
Ayuso also fired Rocío Monasterywho after being dismissed from her position as president of Vox, renounced her role as deputy and therefore the position of spokesperson for the party in the Madrid Assembly.
Monasterio left politics on October 10 amid criticism and reproaches Santiago Abascal due to the lack of “internal democracy” at Vox. The monastery was replaced by Jose Antonio Fusteras president of Vox in Madrid and Isabelle Pérez Moñino as spokesperson in the Chamber of Vallecas.
Currently, Ayuso’s only rivals in the Assembly are the spokesperson for Más Madrid, Manuela Bergerot, and the new spokesperson for Vox, Isabel Pérez Moñino, who has only been in the Regional Chamber for a month and a half.
