It was not scheduled on the agenda for her to appear, but Isabel Díaz Ayuso met this Wednesday with the 17 mayors of the municipalities affected by the large fire in the Sierra Oeste, and ended up facing the significant political crisis she is facing over the purchase and quick sale of a luxury penthouse in Chamberí. Although she continued without clarifying why the property was acquired or what its price was, which, according to El País published yesterday, is 6.3 million euros. “Planifica Madrid buys and sells properties and I have no idea, because it is not my responsibility to know,” she said, in a meeting that was initially announced with only the attendance of her Minister of Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, Miguel Ángel García, and in which she previously detailed the figures of the latest interventions for the reconstruction of the towns.
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In fact, it was to her government spokesperson that the President of the Community of Madrid referred, as the person responsible for clearing up the unknowns about the controversial operation: “The Ministry of Presidency is the one that has the detailed information and the communication channels for this purpose,” Ayuso avoided the question, as on previous occasions when she was asked. “Because Planifica Madrid buys and sells throughout the year on numerous occasions and they do not have a press or communication department.” The public company is in charge of managing the real estate assets of the region, although there is no official documentation on this on the transparency portal.
However, the regional leader did go a step further than the official explanations she had clung to during her last two public appearances, resorting to common sense arguments: “It would be very unwise that, at this stage of my political life in the Community, I looked for a house, where I will not be able to hide, either. Am I going to live like in a bunker?” she defended, after highlighting that if she had intended to have a home for her private or official use, “like so many ministers,” the “logical” action would have been to have done so from her first day in the regional government.
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“Points are linked that have nothing to do with each other to cause harm,” she maintained, and criticized “the intention” to mix where she lives with what will be her future base of work, given the upcoming planned renovations in Sol. “We still don’t know, because the works will start in autumn,” she insisted, after her own cabinet gave confusing explanations about what use was intended for the luxury penthouse of 485 square meters and a terrace of 200 square meters. She herself already admitted on the first day of the controversy, last week, that she would use the home “for temporary meetings.”
