The current spokesperson for Vox in the Madrid Assembly, Rocío Monasterio, announced this Thursday that she was handing in her deputy certificate and was therefore leaving the political front to return to her work as an architect. Monasterio made the announcement in a no-questions-asked appearance before the press, just one day after Vox leader Santiago Abascal removed him as leader of the far-right party in Madrid.
This decision, as Monasterio herself revealed, was not conveyed by the person who was a party colleague since both men joined a party that had no political representation at the time. It was not Abascal who informed him of his dismissal, it was the party’s general secretary, Ignacio Garriga, who transferred him.
In statements to journalists, Monasterio recalled that “Vox Madrid was the only Provincial Executive Committee still in Spain voted on and led by all its members” and emphasized that “these members constitute the most important group in all of Vox”. “The secretary general and the president have the power to choose the next executive committee of Vox Madrid, thanks to the successive amendments that have been presented to our statute,” he assured.
New spokesperson for Vox Madrid, Isabel Pérez Moñino
Therefore, Abascal chose the name of Monasterio’s replacement. This is José Antonio Fúster, one of the profiles gaining visibility in Bambú Street, where the Vox headquarters are located. This regional deputy is in charge of the national spokesperson of the party and is responsible for transmitting every Monday the weekly conclusions of the Political Action Committee, ousting from this position the vice president and general secretary of the party, Ignacio Garriga.
According to Monasterio, the choice of his replacement “leaves internal party democracy in oblivion”, initially defended in Vox. “Given the fact that today I am not the person of confidence of the secretary or the president, it seems logical and honest to me to hand over my certificate of deputy, which I will formalize from now on in the register,” he said. -he announced.
“For me, politics has always been an act of service to Spain and the Spanish people. Try to contribute something to society and not as a small position from which to live forever. I am now returning to my private activity where it is likely that I will do more housing than Mrs Ayuso in four years,” he said.
Monasterio was one of the few Vox founders who still held organic power within the party. His loss of honors in the political formation is added to the departure of other colleagues who participated in the creation of the party and left disenchanted with the current management of the leadership or cornered by the leadership, among them, Monasterio’s husband , Ivan Espinosa. of the Monteros.
Monasterio’s replacement during the face-to-face meetings with Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the Madrid Assembly will be Isabel Pérez Moñino, spokesperson for Vox at the Fuenlabrada City Hall (Madrid), as Fúster revealed a few hours later that Monasterio announced his march. During a brief meeting with the media, the new president of Vox Madrid assured that he “cannot share” the interpretations made by the historic leader of Vox on the functioning of the party.
Fúster wanted to thank his predecessor for the work he did at the head of the party in Madrid. Asked about the reasons given by the party leadership for dismissing Monasterio, the party’s national spokesperson assures that he does not know the reasons because he was not present at the meeting during which this decision was taken. “Vox is above everyone,” he assured at the end of his speech.
He contributed to the game when “everyone’s spirit was pure”
The former Madrid leader of the party expressed in her statements the feelings of some former party colleagues, who left the party over the last year and a half, assuring that she has “contributed to the party since its foundation, when “Things were difficult, when everyone’s spirit was pure and when the party was distinguished by the solvency of a large number of its members”.
Monasterio entered the Madrid Assembly today smiling, escorted by her colleagues from the parliamentary group. She said she was “delighted” and went to the plenary room, where she asked Ayuso about the housing issue.
The president did not want to shed blood on the organic situation of her rival, who once again complains about squatters and defends private property, in danger in Spain, according to her. It was the closest thing to a rational debate, in which opponents question each other’s numbers, but do not point out that they are the embodiment of evil.
As soon as he finished his intervention before the media, in a written statement, Monasterio went to the Registry of the Assembly to present his file as deputy. She did it with the support of four companions: Jorge Cutillas, Javier Pérez Gallardo, Íñigo Henríquez de Luna and Ignacio Arias, who accompanied him during most of his years within the regional group of the far-right party.
Neither her deputy nor any of her colleagues from the parliamentary group accompanied Monasterio to complete her last procedure as regional deputy. In her farewell, the now former party leader displayed her characteristic irony, declaring after her dismissal that she was perhaps, without knowing it, “the director of the legal group in Congress”, a veiled allusion to Vox’s support for legal reform which will allow prisoners serving sentences served abroad to accumulate their sentences for the calculation of the maximum length of service.
Monasterio’s influence in regional politics has been significantly reduced since the PP regained its absolute majority last year. Vox angrily protested against the control of the Madrid Assembly table over the public procurement control commission, whose presidency it abandoned in protest, and Monasterio himself was involved in a controversy, which led to a sanction file, for the vote of another colleague during a plenary. session, according to her by mistake. It was “a hunt”, he criticized at the time. Santiago Abascal ended up receiving the coin.
