The Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, emphasized this Monday that she has already “said everything” about the controversial purchase, by her Government, of a penthouse intended to function as a presidential office during some renovations at the Real Casa de Correos, her usual headquarters, and concluded: “It is for sale, chao pescao.”
Díaz Ayuso spoke this way when, during a visit to the municipality of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, she was asked about the statements made by the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in an interview with Europa Press, where he said he had known since last April that the Madrid Government was looking for “a place” to serve as the president’s office while the works at the Real Casa de Correos, the regional Government’s headquarters, were being carried out.
The president does not see a contradiction between this version of Núñez Feijóo and the one she herself offered weeks ago, when she said she had “no idea” about the details of the operation, carried out by the public company Planifica Madrid, and referred to the Ministry of the Presidency, on which this company depends and which “has the information”.
“If they ask each politician who comes back from vacation one by one, it is obvious that, one by one, they have a new headline, but it is the same again,” Díaz Ayuso replied, whose Government put the penthouse up for sale on August 7, located in the Chamberí district of the capital, days after El País revealed that it was bought last April, without the community making it public.
Asked about the matter, the national spokesperson of the PP, Borja Sémper, said they have “no more information than what has been put on the table” by the Madrid Government. “The responses from the Community of Madrid are reasonable and those they wanted to give and to those I refer,” he concluded.
Regarding Feijóo’s knowledge of the penthouse purchase since April, Sémper indicated that the leader of the populars “hides nothing, unlike other politicians,” and that “he has a fluid relationship” and “talks continuously” with all the regional leaders of his party. To which he added: “I understand that Madridcentrism weighs a lot.”
But at the Génova leadership, they want to focus on the “State crisis” of Ceuta, which is what, they say, worries them “notably” and “what has Mr. Feijóo absolutely committed” to trying to resolve a “so dramatic” situation that “undoubtedly affects the people of Ceuta,” but also “impacts all Spaniards”.
A purchase of 6.3 million euros
The property, with an area of 481 square meters in a residential building, was initially bought for 6.3 million euros, and now the public company Planifica Madrid has it for sale with a starting price of 6.69 million euros.
According to the Community of Madrid, the amount obtained from the operation will be allocated to recovery efforts after the fires that have ravaged the western mountain range this summer.
On the other hand, Núñez Feijóo stated that “it seems” that the penthouse “cannot be used as an office,” so the Community “must explain why it bought a place” useless for such purpose.
However, Díaz Ayuso argued that it was “a property intended for offices” and that “it can also house offices”.
“Everything I say can be proven”, the president asserted, who considers that “this gum cannot be stretched any further” and that, with this matter, “the opposition crashes again in a new attempt” to “provoke” and “entangle”.
The Government believes that “someone is lying” and Ayuso must resign
For her part, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations and Government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, expressed in an interview on TVE collected by EFE that “someone is lying” in the PP and that, in view of this, Díaz Ayuso should resign.
“I don’t know if both lie, one lies or the other lies,” but “both agree” that “they do not have responsibility to face issues so important for the citizens,” Saiz argued before concluding: “That only leads to one path, which is to resign“.
For the spokesperson, Núñez Feijóo’s “revealing statements” are “of extraordinary seriousness“, and highlight that the explanations from the Madrid Government have been “manifestly insufficient” and “manifestly worrying”.
