"For you, impossible rent, for her, the luxury penthouse": Más Madrid parks a bus against Ayuso in front of the Assembly

Más Madrid has brought this Thursday the controversy of the luxury penthouse bought by the public company Planifica Madrid to the doors of the regional Assembly. A bus with the image of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the slogan "For you, impossible rent; for her, the luxury penthouse" has greeted the president during the first day of the Debate on the State of the Region.

The party led by Manuela Bergerot has chosen access to housing to open a political year marked by the 2027 regional elections. Its campaign, baptized as 'Madrid is not their VIP box', contrasts the difficulties of thousands of Madrilenians to remain in their neighborhoods with the public acquisition of a 6.3 million euro property in one of the most expensive areas of Chamberí.

The bus also targets the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and will travel during the day through spaces that Más Madrid associates with the economic and urban model of the Popular Party. The route includes the Ifema Formula 1 circuit, the Cuatro Torres, the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, General Martínez Campos promenade, the national headquarters of the PP in Génova, and the Palacio de Cibeles.

Afterwards, it will arrive in Vallecas, Orcasitas, Parla, Fuenlabrada, Leganés, Móstoles, and Alcorcón, neighborhoods and municipalities where the party wants to highlight the deterioration of public services, the lack of investment, and the increase in rents, in contrast to the Madrid of big events and real estate operations.

A 6.3 million euro penthouse still without clear explanations

Planifica Madrid bought the property in April for 6.3 million euros. The dwelling has about 485 square meters and a terrace close to 200. The regional government justified the operation as a temporary solution to install Presidency offices during future works at the Real Casa de Correos.

The commission made to a luxury real estate agency expressly requested a space located in Chamberí, between 250 and 400 square meters and with a large terrace. The public company ended up acquiring an even larger dwelling, although municipal urban planning regulations prevent the entire property from being used as offices and the Madrid City Council had not received a request to modify its use.

The need for the purchase was also questioned when it became known that Planifica Madrid then had an empty office of 478 square meters near Plaza de Castilla. The space, barely seven meters smaller than the penthouse, had been unused for years and was also among the Community's assets.

The operation remained out of public knowledge until it was revealed in July. Planifica Madrid has not yet published the complete acquisition file, despite requests from the opposition to know who ordered the search for the property, why that property was chosen, and what reports supported the outlay.

Ayuso initially stated that she had "no idea" about the purchase. Her entourage later confirmed that the president personally visited the penthouse between June and July to check if it could be used as a provisional office. The Community eventually abandoned that purpose and has put the property up for sale for about 6.69 million, about 390,000 euros more than its purchase price.

Más Madrid has made these contradictions the center of its offensive. The party denounces that the regional executive sought a penthouse with a large terrace while more and more young people and families face rents incompatible with their salaries or have to leave the neighborhoods where they have lived their lives.

"There is a Madrid turned into a showcase and business for investment funds, speculators, and large fortunes, and another made up of those who suffer skyrocketing rents and increasingly strained public services," the party defended.

Ayuso dodges the penthouse and again takes refuge in Sánchez

The president avoided directly addressing the purchase during her first intervention in the Debate on the State of the Region. Ayuso presented more than a hundred measures, including the construction of 3,000 affordable rental homes and the creation of a regional map of empty properties, but she reserved a significant part of her speech to attack the central government.

The Madrid leader used the regional platform to talk about Pedro Sánchez, Morocco, the Ceuta crisis, and the financing model. Her intervention thus acquired a marked national and electoralist tone, with Madrid relegated for long stretches to the scene of her confrontation with Moncloa.

The only allusion to the penthouse came in a veiled way when Ayuso claimed the savings achieved by her Government through the sale of public properties. The reference provoked mockery among the opposition and avoided going into the specific conditions of an operation that still lacks a complete public file.

Más Madrid intends to keep housing at the center of the debate against the president's attempt to shift the discussion towards national politics. The bus route turns the purchase of Chamberí into the symbol of a Community that, according to the party, favors big business while thousands of residents are expelled by the price of rent.

When the vehicle passed in front of the national headquarters of the Popular Party, Más Madrid disseminated the images with a message expressly addressed to its president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo: "Feijóo, realize it".