Ayuso again stirs the shadow of fraud with the Grandchildren's Law and asks if Sánchez wants to "nationalize socialists"

Isabel Díaz Ayuso has once again brought the Grandchildren's Law, the overseas vote, and the regularization of migrants into the realm of electoral suspicion. The president of the Community of Madrid asked this Wednesday if the Government of Pedro Sánchez is trying to "nationalize socialists" and has called for "observers now" to monitor the process before the next general elections.

The Madrid leader launched these accusations during a colloquium at the Club Siglo XXI, where she spoke of "engineering" with the census and announced that she will go to the European Union, to the courts, or to any instances she deems necessary to demand "transparency." Ayuso did not explicitly speak of electoral fraud, but she did sow doubts about the nationalizations derived from the Democratic Memory Law, the CERA vote, and the reinforcement of personnel in consulates.

"Who regularizes and nationalizes massively? A mafia government," she stated. She then added another of the harshest phrases of the event: "Are they trying to nationalize socialists?" The Madrid president maintains that the Executive can favor the overseas vote "where the voting memory is favorable to them" and has insinuated that the PSOE would already have "activists" deployed in embassies and consulates.

Ayuso's message comes after several days of the PP's offensive against the Grandchildren's Law, despite Alberto Núñez Feijóo having previously defended a path to nationality for descendants of Spaniards abroad. The popular leadership has tried these days to maintain that it always supported this recognition, although it now accuses the Government of using it to "manufacture voters."

Clash with Feijóo's shift towards Junts

Ayuso has also distanced herself from Génova's rapprochement with Junts. The Madrid president has defended that the "sensible" thing to do is to move away from the "constant independence threat," just after Feijóo called in Catalonia to "turn the page" on the procés and after Miguel Tellado stated that today the threat is no longer secessionism, but Sánchez's continuity in Moncloa.

The Madrid president has echoed part of the message launched this very morning by José María Aznar, who called for a broad “national majority” to oust Sánchez. Ayuso has translated this into the need for Spain to stop being, in her words, “a prisoner of minority dictatorships”. In that block, she has placed the government's pro-independence partners and has argued that PP, PSOE, and Vox should be able to understand each other to stop that scenario, although she has admitted that she does not see it as close.

The colloquium has also left another sensitive issue for the Madrid PP. Ayuso has confirmed her support for the mayor of Móstoles, Manuel Bautista, after the judge refused to dismiss the case opened by the complaint of a former councilwoman for alleged sexual and workplace harassment. “How am I not going to defend his work and commitment to Móstoles?” replied the president, who has reduced the case to a labor dispute while the judicial investigation remains open.

The event has condensed a good part of Ayuso's political moment: offensive against Sánchez, doubts about the electoral system, clash with pro-independence partners, and internal support for the mayor of Móstoles. All in a week in which the PP tries to harden its discourse against the Government while managing its own contradictions with Junts, Vox, and the Grandchildren's Law.