Maroto's debut as a PSOE candidate unleashes the first clash with Almeida in Cibeles, who ironizes about the primary results

José Luis Martínez-Almeida arrived this Tuesday at the Cibeles Plenary with a World Cup tie and political ammunition ready. The mayor of Madrid responded to a question from the socialist spokesperson, Reyes Maroto, about equality policies with a congratulation full of irony for her recent victory in the PSOE primaries, held just two days earlier. "On Sunday, in football and politics, I received nothing but good news," Almeida began, before pointing out the close result Maroto obtained against her rival, Enma López, 55% versus 45% of the militancy.

"Given the enthusiasm with which the socialist militants have voted for you, Mrs. Maroto, I am not sure that you are going to change the Government of this city," the mayor launched, to then qualify with more sarcasm: "In any case, allow me to congratulate you because there are many of us who are happy about what happened on Sunday for the socialist militants. There are many of us who celebrate your election as the Socialist Party's candidate for the City Council."

The exchange of reproaches occurred during a question posed by the socialist spokesperson about municipal equality policies. Maroto accused Almeida's government of having dismantled part of the network of equality spaces and defended that Madrid continues to be "a profoundly unequal city for women." In addition, she reproached the mayor for maintaining his support for the mayor of Móstoles, investigated for an alleged case of sexual and labor harassment.  

Almeida was not content with the ironic congratulation and wanted to exploit the internal tension that still separates Maroto from López and Enma López, both sitting next to each other in the municipal hemicycle. "Is it feminism to accuse the person sitting to your right of being disloyal and having a craving for protagonism? Would you have said this about a man, Mrs. Maroto?" the mayor asked, to conclude with a phrase that summarized his strategy for the day: "It must be extremely uncomfortable, you must be doing an exercise in ecofeminist resilience to put up with someone so disloyal sitting to your right."

The mayor also took advantage of his speech to introduce other references to current political events. He recalled some lapses committed by Maroto during the primary debate, he again mentioned the Aldama case and the rescue of Plus Ultra, and even hinted that, at least on this occasion, the socialist spokeswoman "had not needed to go to Mr. Aldama to be a candidate for the Socialist Party for the Madrid City Council."