All the lessons (also for Italy) of Ayuso’s (Pp) victory in Madrid
The people of Madrid have rewarded Ayuso's management, especially that of the pandemic, its policy of controlled openings, its non-punitive logic towards the economy and freedom of movement, the balance between health and respect for citizens' rights. Enzo Reale's analysis for Atlantico Quotidiano
Social-populism stops at the gates of Madrid. The early elections in the community of the capital confirm the presidency of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP), but they do so by giving the center-right more than double representation compared to 2019 (65 seats) and by resizing in an unappealable way the Socialist Party (PSOE), in government of the country since 2018.
For Sanchismo, also thanks to an inconsistent candidate, the thud was historic: from 37 to 24 seats, the worst result ever, surpassed in number of votes by Más Madrid, a left-wing formation of a local character.
The gamble of Pablo Iglesias saves the furniture in the Podemos house (10 representatives) but condemns his personal political projection to death and probably also the coalition government with the socialists.
Ayuso's masterpiece is such that the number of seats obtained by the PP is greater than the sum of all the forces of the left, thus making VOX's abstention in the investiture process sufficient and his support in government action of little importance.
Ciudadanos disappears, a centrist force that ruled until yesterday with Ayuso, which paid dearly for the attempt to promote anti-PP no-confidence motions in other autonomous communities: the threatened turnaround led to the elections that decreed its disappearance from the regional scenario (from 26 to zero representatives).
The socialist-led executive wakes up with the country's capital as the main bulwark of the opposition and with Isabel Díaz Ayuso as an icon of anti-sanchism. A potentially formidable opponent.
The first lesson of the Madrid vote is that shouting "fascist" to everything that moves and does not wear the color red misery electorally does not pay. The voters proved more mature than the populism of the self-styled "progressive" front and rejected the civil war rhetoric with which Iglesias and the pseudo-revolutionary company had campaigned: the No pasarán always shows a certain appeal, only it worked for the contrary.
Citizens rewarded Ayuso's management, especially that of the pandemic, its policy of controlled openings, its non-punitive logic towards the economy and freedom of movement, the balance between health and respect for citizens' rights.
No, it was not fascism but the promise to reduce post-pandemic taxation, to deregulate, to increase the possibilities of choice in the public service. No, the millions of voters who queued at the polling stations to give their preference to the center-right were not fascists, but ordinary people who simply ask to be able to move, work, send their children to school and are tired of being told what to do do, think, vote to be considered full citizens.
Ayuso's triumph is above all the proposal of an alternative model to the one that has made Spain an economic and health black hole. And it is precisely this that frightens social-populism in command, the observation that its homologating discourse can be rejected equally clearly at the national level.
A rude awakening, in short, made even more abrupt by what can be defined as a perfect evening for a Popular Party that emerges reinvigorated by an administrative consultation with profound political repercussions: in one fell swoop Isabel Díaz Ayuso approaches the absolute majority, absorbs entirely the centrist electorate of Ciudadanos, relegating VOX to a totally marginal position in the government of the community, undermines the compactness of the leftist front and forces Iglesias to resign. An absolutely unthinkable scenario until a few weeks ago.
As for the former leader and co-founder of Podemos only a few words, just the ones he deserves. With him goes the most pernicious figure for Spanish democracy since the death of Francisco Franco: fifth column of Chavismo in Spain, financed by "selling" consultancy to the Venezuelan regime, he is the man who reintroduced and propagated hatred with both hands class in a country always struggling with the legacy of historical memory. Asked during the election campaign on "freedom or communism, Pablo?", He replied with an air of superiority "communism, what the hell". On election day the usual "anti-fascist" mantra was croaking into the microphones, confidently appealing to the "will of the democratic majority". Only his, of course. And the majority spoke, sending him home, the one so well paid by the public money of his sad seven-year-old politician, from which he frees himself with a chalet with a swimming pool, a minister wife and his pockets full. All typically communist, in fact. Now he will entrust his ideological poison to television propaganda, bad weed never dies. But his political parable really seems to be at an end.
His opponents have said everything about Ayuso: that with his policy of openness he had "spread the epidemic", that his community was contaminating the country (false, the rates of contagion in Madrid are in many cases better than other regions that have adopted the policy of the iron lockdown), which with her would have won trumpism, fascism, turboliberalism, egoism, extremism, they called her idiot, ignorant, manipulative, they designed her with a swastika between hands. The repertoire of all time, which the good and just left uses when necessary against those who cannot defeat on the pitch. This is why his triumph is worth double, triple. Because it unmasks the politically correct hypocrisy of the masters of thought and forces them into a corner, alone in the face of their moral misery. The slogan of his campaign is a striking example of the success of a communication strategy: that "socialism / communism or freedom" certainly did not refer to the establishment of the Soviet of soldiers and peasants but perfectly interpreted the sentiment of a population tired of limitations. , impositions and official lies.
(Article published on Atlantico Quotidiano, here the full version)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/tutte-le-lezioni-anche-per-litalia-della-vittoria-di-ayuso-pp-a-madrid/ on Sat, 08 May 2021 14:30:12 +0000.