Manuela Carmena refused to be relegated to the opposition and abandoned politics after the last elections. Since then, Más Madrid has claimed the stamp of a judge with a star that Cibeles took after a conservative quarter of a century. But the announcement that Marta Higueras – the group’s spokesperson and the ex-mayor’s right-hand man – detaches himself from the political reconstruction of the party, evidences a latent conflict between two souls: the municipal and the autonomous ones.
Higueras’ decision comes at a time when the brand, the first force of the City Council and fourth in the Community, is immersed in internal debates. They will culminate in this month’s telematic congress, where a new address will be chosen and the statutes will be approved. Hopefully, the process can be replicated in other territories, in order to create a national organization that already has three representatives in the lower house. The idea is supported with greater enthusiasm from the training bench in the Madrid Assembly, whose deputies support the financing of the party by donating twice the salary of the municipal group.
The councilors of Más Madrid give up 10% of their gross salary, while the regional deputies limit their income to three minimum wages of 900 euros. This difference in financial commitments indicates the existence of two parallel spheres, hitherto poorly connected to each other due to the absence of an organic framework. Higueras maintains that the creation of this new political skeleton is legitimate, however, she claims “part of the original project that citizens voted on May 26”. And it is reaffirmed in the current donations: “My determination has nothing to do with this, but I clarify that I will never fail to comply with the requirements that I have signed. What I will not do is pay the fee for a party that I am not going to join. “
The former deputy mayor still calls Carmena by her first name. They are united through a friendship forged three decades ago in the judiciary and strengthened on the fourth floor of the Cibeles palace: “I still believe in her vision and in the platform she created.” Higueras has closely followed the meetings and assemblies of what he calls “a new More Madrid”. But he is not convinced that the final goal is “to reproduce the logics of the parties”, although he will keep his minutes and retain the spokesperson he shares with Rita Maestre. “I am sure that my colleagues, whose work is so valuable to the city, will know how to find a fit for Carmenism in the new organization chart.”
“The parties can be a hindrance. They are necessary for the functioning of democracy, of course, because we have not yet found a better formula. But the objective must be to overcome this organizational form and to do politics ”, adds Higueras. This forcefulness contrasts with the fact that he was number two in Más País, to attend the last general elections. Then he gave his seat to Inés Sabanés, because “Equo is a plural force that deserves to obtain its own representation.” Asked about that adventure, the mayor responds in this way: “Íñigo Errejón is a great member of parliament and I am glad to have collaborated with him. However, in Madrid I owe myself to the project that brought us to the City Council, the one that Carmena led, and to no other. ”
On Saturday Higueras was left alone with her loyalties. No one else in the party spread the message on social media announcing their decision to stay out of the reconstruction. With the exception of José Manuel Calvo, who shared the brief statement and made his own estrangement public. The mayor, who held the Department of Urban Development in Carmena’s time, says he is “cured of dread with the experience of Podemos.” In political organizations, he adds, the tension is omnipresent: “Adherence is required until the last consequences at the risk of losing the card.” For this reason, he is not interested in repeating an inside job and prefers to focus on opposing.
However, Díaz Ayuso is not Martínez Almeida. Despite sharing popular militancy, the President of the Community and the Mayor have faced the crisis with two different styles. The Cibeles Pacts could hardly be replicated in the Assembly, where the anger has been installed as a formula. Two such disparate scenarios hinder unity in action in Más Madrid: “The strategy cannot be the same, because the two governments differ in their predisposition to dialogue. On the one hand, it is necessary to be more aggressive and on the other, we can allow ourselves more relaxation, “says Calvo, to point out afterwards that only” the autonomy of the groups guarantees a policy on the ground. ” The mayor says that many other councilors “have remained outside the new organizational process.” Some are active in other organizations, such as Félix López Rey, who do so in the United Left of Orcasitas. But everyone has avoided notifying the media: “By doing it, you expose yourself a lot.”
In More Madrid they deny it and stress that Calvo and Higueras’ decision has caught by surprise. In the party they do not understand that two people with an entire legislature behind them present themselves as independent. They also report that financial unification will be discussed at this month’s congress. Donations will be progressive, depending on the salary and regardless of whether the act is municipal or autonomous.
Rita Maestre, co-spokesperson at the City Council, concedes that they will find a way to “unite those who do not want to link organically with the overwhelming majority of councilors and militants who do want to”. Carmenism can be orphaned.
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