Isabel Díaz Ayuso

Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Spanish pronunciation: [isaˈβel ˈdi.aθ aˈʝuso]; born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish politician who serves as the President of the Community of Madrid.[1] A member of the People's Party (PP), and the Vice-Secretary of Communication and Spokeswoman of the party's Madrilenian branch,[2] she was the regional candidate for President of the Community of Madrid ahead of the 2019 Madrilenian regional election.[3][4] Although her party lost the regional elections for the first time since May 1991, she was later elected President by the Assembly of Madrid. Her administration represented several firsts: it was the first time that the region was run by a coalition government—formed by Ayuso's own conservative People's Party (PP) and Citizens—and it was the first time that the far right, represented by Vox, props up a regional executive in Madrid.[5]

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Díaz and the second or maternal family name is Ayuso.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso
President of the Community of Madrid
Assumed office
19 August 2019
MonarchFelipe VI
DeputyIgnacio Aguado
Preceded byÁngel Garrido
Pedro Rollán (acting)
Personal details
Born
Isabel Díaz Ayuso

(1978-10-17) 17 October 1978
Madrid, Spain
Political partyPP
Height1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Alma materComplutense University of Madrid

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, she announced on 16 March that she had tested positive for the disease.[6]

Personal life

Born on 17 October 1978 in Madrid in the Chamberí district, her parents were involved in the trade of medical articles.[7] She has a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)[8] and a Master's degree in Political Communication and Protocol.[7]

Political career

Affiliated to the Popular Party (PP) in 2005, when Pablo Casado was the president of New Generations in Madrid, in 2006, she was hired by Alfredo Prada, Minister of Justice and the Interior of the Government of the Community of Madrid, for his press department, gaining the confidence of Esperanza Aguirre.[9] Specialized in political communication, she directed the online area of the PP, taking charge of Cristina Cifuentes' digital campaign in 2015.[10] Since 2017, she has been the partner of the hairdresser Jairo Alonso.[11]

A candidate on the PP list for the 2011 Madrid Assembly elections, she was not elected as a Member of Parliament at the time. She entered the ninth legislature of the regional parliament on 15 July, filling the vacancy caused by Engracia Hidalgo's resignation.[12] She renewed her act as a deputy in the 2015 elections. During the x legislature she served as deputy spokesperson for her group, a position she abandoned along with her status as a deputy when she was appointed vice-counselor of the Presidency and Justice of the regional government.[13]

On January 11, 2019, the decision of the president of the PP, Pablo Casado, to appoint her as the head of his party's list for the elections to the Assembly of Madrid in 2019, was announced.

In the elections of 26 May 2019, the PP list obtained 22.23% of valid votes and 30 seats, the second most voted list after the PSOE, with 27.31% of valid votes and 37 seats.[14]

Presidency of the Community of Madrid
Díaz Ayuso at the Assembly of Madrid, during the investiture session.

Proposed as a candidate for the Presidency of the Community of Madrid by the President of the Assembly of Madrid, Juan Trinidad, who had previously prevented an investiture session for Ángel Gabilondo by scheduling an investiture session without a candidate in July 2019,[15] Díaz Ayuso was sworn in as President of the regional government on August 14, with 68 votes in favour (corresponding to members of the Popular, Citizens' and Vox parliamentary groups in Madrid) and 64 against (corresponding to members of the Socialist, Más Madrid and United We Can-Madrid en Pie parliamentary groups).

In January 2020, she hired Miguel Ángel Rodríguez as chief of staff. Her vice president, Ignacio Aguado, then explained his disagreement with the decision.[16]

Six months after her inauguration as President of the Community of Madrid, the COVID-19 pandemic reached Spain with special virulence in the Community of Madrid. In accordance with the state of alarm decreed by the Spanish government on 14 March 2020, the government of the Community of Madrid, like the other autonomous communities, took immediate measures [required clarification] such as the closure of schools and leisure centres, shows and sports events, retired people's day centres, religious celebrations, the closure of hotels and tourist accommodation, shops considered not to be of basic need and the limitation of travel to those needed to go to work or buy food. It also adopted protection measures in public transport, and tax reductions in the payment of Business Tax (IAE) and Property Tax (IBI) for leisure, hotel and commercial premises, travel agencies and large stores, on the condition that they maintain the jobs until the end of the year. Presential activity was suspended in all Community Citizen Service offices, and teleworking was encouraged.[17]

In view of the saturation of hospital services, hotels in Madrid were medicalized for minor patients.[18]

Ayuso stopped appearing before the Madrid Assembly on 5 March 2020, and the chamber was closed for more than a month.[19]

Ayuso was criticized for delivering high-quality FFP2 and FFP3 protective masks to the citizens of the Community of Madrid for free, which arguably could provoke that these kind of masks became scarce in hospitals — it later was revealed that hospitals were also well supplied with this equipment.[20]

Ayuso opposed his government partner's, Citizens party, request for the army to intervene in the homes of the elderly.[21] However, the army ended up entering the homes, against her own criteria, finding corpses and people "in extreme situations and in poor sanitary conditions" during Covid-19 epidemic.[21]

Also in March 2020, after the declaration of the state of alarm, Ayuso proceeded to terminate the contracts of all the concessionaires of school canteens,[22] and hired for 2 months fast food franchises such as Telepizza, Rodilla or Viena Capellanes to feed the children of families that had a reduced price in the canteens because they were beneficiaries of the Minimum Income of Insertion (RMI).

In May 2020, her Director General of Public Health, Yolanda Fuentes, resigned, disagreeing with Ayuso's decision to request the transfer from phase 0 to phase 1 of the confinement, because it was not based on "health criteria," a position Ayuso reportedly took after a meeting with businessmen.[23][24]

References
  1. "Real Decreto 495/2019, de 16 de agosto, por el que se nombra Presidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid a doña Isabel Natividad Díaz Ayuso" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Vol. 2019 no. 197. Madrid, Spain: Government of Spain. 17 August 2019. p. 92201. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  2. "Isabel Díaz Ayuso, vicesecretaria de Comunicación y portavoz del PP de Madrid". Telemadrid (in Spanish). 19 May 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  3. "Casado elige a Díaz Ayuso como candidata a la Comunidad de Madrid y a Martínez-Almeida para la alcaldía". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 11 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  4. "Casado elige dos perfiles "duros" para las candidaturas a la Comunidad y el Ayuntamiento". El Mundo (in Spanish). 12 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  5. El País; Mateo, Juan José (Aug 14, 2019). "Madrid region gets its first government propped up by the far right". Retrieved Sep 4, 2019 – via elpais.com.
  6. Mateo, Juan José (2020-03-16). "Isabel Díaz Ayuso, positivo por coronavirus". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  7. "Isabel Díaz Ayuso". Portal de Transparencia. 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  8. "Asamblea de Madrid. Páginas - Curriculum". 2018-04-16. Archived from the original on 2018-04-16. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  9. "Esperanza Aguirre resucita con la elección de Ayuso y Almeida". 2019-01-28. Archived from the original on 2019-01-28. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  10. Madridiario. "PERFIL | Isabel Díaz Ayuso, la que elevó a Cifuentes a la Presidencia". Madridiario (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  11. "El orgullo (con mayúsculas) del novio peluquero de Ayuso". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2019-08-17. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  12. (PDF). 2016-03-04 https://web.archive.org/web/20160304105659/http://www.asambleamadrid.es/BOAM/BOAM_9_00008.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2020-05-13. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. "DECRETO 85/2017, de 26 de septiembre, del Consejo de Gobierno, por el que se nombra Viceconsejera de Presidencia y Justicia a doña Isabel Díaz Ayuso" (PDF). Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  14. "Elecciones a la Asamblea de Madrid 2019" (PDF).
  15. Mateo, Juan José (2019-07-12). "El presidente de la Asamblea reconoce la controversia de no presentar a Gabilondo a la investidura". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  16. Mateo, Juan José (2020-01-22). "El Gobierno se parte en dos por el fichaje de Miguel Ángel Rodríguez como jefe de gabinete de Ayuso". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  17. Agencias, El País (2020-03-11). "Las medidas contra el coronavirus que ha puesto en marcha Madrid". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  18. Vega, Juan José Mateo, Berta Ferrero, Luis de (2020-03-18). "La Comunidad de Madrid activa cientos de camas en dos hoteles y moviliza a miles de licenciados en Medicina sin el MIR". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  19. Mateo, Juan José (2020-04-10). "La oposición fuerza la reactivación de la Asamblea de Madrid". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  20. EFE. "Ayuso tras las críticas por mascarillas: Los sanitarios han recibido material". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  21. "Crisis de Gobierno en Madrid por el coronavirus: Ayuso quita a Ciudadanos el control de las residencias". El Plural (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  22. "Una trabajadora afectada por un ERTE: "Estoy indignada con el plan de pizzas de Ayuso"". El Plural (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  23. Digital, Redacción (2020-05-08). "Yolanda Fuentes considera que la decisión de Ayuso "no está basada en criterios de salud"". COPE (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  24. Murphy, Jessica Murray Simon; Badshah (now), Amy Walker (earlier) Nadeem (2020-05-07). "US Covid-19 death toll passes 75,000 – as it happened". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
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