This Wednesday, at 10 a.m., the Madrid Assembly will turn into a real television set. The Regional Chamber located in Vallecas will receive a guest as planned as a “foreigner”: the wife of the president of the government, Begoña Gómez, that he will testify before the commission of inquiry on the alleged preferential treatment from which he would have benefited from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).
The number of media accredited for the occasion is one of the highest in memory in the regional organization, even if everything seems to indicate that the president’s wife will remain silent for the duration of the event. examination parliamentary groups.
Will he show up? Do you have to answer questions that groups ask you? Stay all this time? Will it be Ayuso? Will he have the explicit support of the Socialist Party of Madrid in the midst of the struggle for the leadership of Juan Lobato? These are some of the questions raised by this unprecedented event.
And the fact is that, even if great authorities like former regional presidents Esperanza Aguirre or Cristina Cifuentes After having to endure the ordeal of submitting to a commission of inquiry like this, the wife of a government president has never been called to testify.
Indeed, no member of a national government (or other autonomous community) has ever come to report to the Assembly.
This was attempted, but the Chamber’s lawyers always maintained that, before the regional chamber, they should not be held responsible, but before a national chamber.
Today, Begoña Gómez breaks the precedent for a simple fact: although she is the wife of the president of the government, she will attend this appointment as a private citizen and for her role in the master’s degrees and third cycle of Complutense University of Madrid which are under investigation.
Should Begoña Gómez go to the Assembly?
The summons confirming the appearance of Begoña Gómez at the commission of inquiry opened to Madrid Assembly He arrived Monday, November 4 at the Moncloa Palace, residence of the wife of the President of Government.
Once this notification is received, nothing will prevent Begoña Gómez from appearing. Not even the attempt More from Madrid He played this Monday. Refusing to attend would result in a crime of disobedience to Begoña Gomez, according to article 502 of the Penal Code. “Those who, legally required and warned, do not appear before a Commission of Inquiry of the Cortes Generales or before a Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Community, will be punished as guilty of the crime of disobedience,” we read in the precept.
Should Begoña Gómez testify in the Assembly?
Another very different thing is to declare. In fact, the two cases of former regional presidents who have already participated in similar commissions are an example of this. Esperanza Aguirre did not want to remain silent and answered each of the questions. On the contrary, Cifuentes She remained silent during the long hour of questions from the groups.
As this newspaper was able to confirm, the Commission will be in the “Caserón de San Bernardo” room, Gómez will testify at 10:00 a.m., then Joaquín Goyache (11:30 a.m.) and María Elvira Gutiérrez-Vierna will do so last (1:00 p.m.).
After the opening of the session and the two minutes of rigor available to the PP to present the objective of the Commission, which is the one proposing it, Each of the parliamentary groups will have 20 minutes of questions to the wife of the President of the Government. The PP will do it first, they have been preparing it for weeks, and the rest of the groups will follow. This is when she may remain silent or react to confrontation.
In the case of Begoña Gómez, the logic would be for her to remain silent, just as she did before the judge when he called her to testify. Furthermore, there is antecedents in the Madrid Assembly other people who refused to testify because it is a legal matter. This is the hypothesis which, for example, was adopted Cristina Cifuentes during the commission of the Master affair.
The problem of Begoña Gómez’s silence is all the questions that will remain unanswered. From the Popular festival and Vox They will take advantage of the opportunity offered by their turn to take the floor to question the president’s wife.
They will do this on aspects related to the master’s degree and other training. Questions that will remain unanswered and which could sow even more doubts. Even open up new avenues of research.
Should you listen to all the questions?
Therefore, Begoña Gómez will have to sit in the president’s chair until the four parliamentary groups have finished their speaking turns. It is unclear whether Más Madrid and the PSOE will take the opportunity to excuse the wife of the President of the Government and take the “middle path” by bringing other issues to the forefront.
One possibility is that they use their speaking time to denounce other aspects related to university education, such as the lack of funding. This would be a line similar to that which, for example, No more Madrid, used when recording appearances.
Will the leader of the PSOE from Madrid, Juan Lobato, be there?
During this Monday, the leader of the Madrid socialists, Juan Lobatoleft the door open to any possibility as to what his presence will be at the appearance of Begoña Gómez. The regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has already joked about whether they were going to receive her “at porta gayola” through the air ducts, aware that the photo of Lobato with Gómez could be used by the PP as a throwing weapon.
For the moment, sources close to Lobato remain silent and refer to past statements by the spokesperson for the Madrid socialists. Lobato assured her presence, but not whether she was going to receive her or accompany her during the session.
He only declared that he was going to be at the Assembly “normally” and “as a guest of the Socialist Group, to receive the wife of the President of the Government and accompany her to the committee”.
A fact that must be combined with his work as a regional senator, since he has a question in the upper house this very Wednesday morning. A very successful bobbin lace with its diary.
Will Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso be there?
Like every Wednesday, the president of the Community of Madrid will chair the Board of Directors in which executive decisions are made by the entire government. Ayuso’s presence was never considered.
On the contrary, on behalf of the Popular Party in the Assembly, there will be Susana Pérez Quislant, president of the Commission, and Pablo Posse, secretary of the board of directors of the commission. In your case it will be Mercedes Zarzalejo who speaks to the commission as spokesperson and interviews the president’s wife.
Regarding the rest of the groups, the PSOE will be represented by Jesús Celada, vice-president of the Table, Martha Bernardoright arm of Juan Lobato and spokesperson for the PSOE in said commission, and Mar Espinar, former municipal councilor of Madrid and today a deputy very close to the socialist leadership.
Más Madrid will be represented by the spokesperson of the said organization, Antonio Sanchezwho will be the spokesperson. Juan Ignacio Varela and María Pastor will also be present.
In the case of Vox, its national spokesperson, José Antonio Fusterone of the strong faces of the party in its new stage, more conservative, will be present in the commission, although the one who asks Begoña and directs the position of his group in this commission will be Ana Cuartero. Íñigo Henriquez de Luna will also be present.
