With the photo of the grievance monopolizing the political debate, Isabel DÃaz Ayuso has spoken this Wednesday about the controversial blockade that her protocol team exercised against Félix Bolaños when the Minister of the Presidency tried to access the tribune of honor from which the presidency of the Community of Madrid attended the military parade that put an end to the celebrations of May 2. And he has done it to defend himself against all the accusations received in the last hours. “Yesterday was not a day for ministers. And Mr. Bolaños”, whom he has accused of going to the event to “provoke”, was “as a guest, so he did not have space in the rostrum”, he pointed out .
Ayuso has stressed before the microphones of the Ser chain that “the important thing is to know that in the institutional acts of the Community there are no ministers (…) We explained to him that he was not even invited.” “We are getting used to the fact that the Government intervenes in everything it wants, but it is not like that,” he added.
The Madrid president has gone to the writing of the Ser “very smiling and with a firm step”, as La Vanguardia has been able to find out. Although, already inside the studio, “the tension has been more than evident”. Ayuso has hardly looked at her mobile phone or her notes, which curiously were in a red folder very similar to the one used by her chief of protocol, Alejandra Blázquez. And he has limited himself to developing a perfectly prepared argument with his team of collaborators after the shocking images of the day before.
The controversy happened yesterday, at the gates of the Real Casa de Correos when the protocol team of the Community of Madrid decided to cut off the minister who, previously, had attended the ceremony that took place inside the headquarters of the Executive regional.
Bolaños did not receive a formal invitation, but his name and his position finally did appear on the back of one of the chairs in the front row. Although that prominent place in the audience was not reserved for the parade.
Seeing that he was going to be left out of the authorities’ photo, Bolaños put one foot on the platform ladder, but at that moment the Community protocol team prevented him from passing: “We beg you to comply with the regulations,” was the explanation from Ayuso’s team, to which Bolaños’ team replied with a blunt “the minister of Spain has to go up”.
After a tense exchange of opinions in which some argued that the institutional representation was “perfectly established”, while the others argued that the protocol decree was being “breached” – specifically royal decree 2099/1983 that regulates the presence of authorities–, Bolaños ended up giving up on his attempt.
All this farce obeys the strategy designed by the chief of staff of the Madrid president. Miguel Ãngel RodrÃguez has given the order to keep the direct confrontation of the president with the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, as tense as possible. And the objective is none other than to convert the uncontested electoral victory of 2021 into an absolute majority on the basis of a confrontation with the Government. A majority that allows governing without the need for Vox and, not least, without the tutelage of Feijóo, whose results in the general elections will be immediately compared with those of the Madrid leader. Especially if it does not take the PP to Moncloa.
