Óscar López portrays Ayuso after reducing Maricarmen's eviction to "one of the 25,500": "She is not the victim"

Óscar López responded this Thursday to Isabel Díaz Ayuso after the Madrid president tried to present herself as a victim of the protests caused by Maricarmen's eviction. The general secretary of the Socialist Party of Madrid (PSOE-M) recalled that the woman expelled from her home is the one who has suffered the direct consequences of the lack of institutional response.

"I have just heard Mrs. Ayuso victimizing herself again over yesterday's demonstrations. And I want to tell her that she is not the victim. The victim is Maricarmen," he stated before participating in a meeting of Madrid's socialist parliamentarians.

Ayuso had assured a few hours earlier that the eviction of the 87-year-old woman was "one of the 25,500" that are carried out each year in Spain and occurred "in compliance with the law." She also accused the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, of using his intervention from New York to promote the "burning of streets".

The Madrid president thus turned the protests over the expulsion of a vulnerable woman into a supposed attack against her and against the region's economy. She even warned that Madrid residents would be "prisoners" of an increasingly violent climate of mobilizations and spoke of an attempt to "dehumanize and harass" her Government.

The demonstrations began after Maricarmen was taken out on a stretcher from the Retiro apartment where she had lived since 1956. In the afternoon, nearly 10,000 people gathered in front of the controversial Chamberí penthouse acquired by the public company Planifica Madrid for 6.3 million euros.

The property, with an area of nearly 500 square meters and a terrace of about 200, was to be used as an institutional space during the works of the Real Casa de Correos. The operation went ahead without publicity and it is still unknown who ordered the purchase of precisely that penthouse. The Community put it up for sale after the case became known, although the first auction ended without offers.

López used that contradiction to directly criticize Ayuso's management. "The Community is focused on finding a penthouse for Mrs. Ayuso, but in terms of housing, which is her responsibility, she has done absolutely nothing," he reproached.

The clash also opens one of the main fronts of the next regional campaign. López will lead the Madrid PSOE against Ayuso in 2027 and wants to turn housing into the great contrast between both models, in a region where rental and purchase prices are increasingly expelling workers from the capital and nearby municipalities.

Ayuso's model comes under scrutiny

The socialist leader has accused the Madrid Government of maintaining an "ideological commitment" to an "absolutely speculative" market. According to his denunciation, Ayuso allows large investment funds to compete with families who lack the economic capacity to afford current prices.

López has also brought back one of the most serious episodes of the Madrid PP's management. Thousands of public housing units were sold to investment funds during previous regional governments, an operation that removed these properties from the protected stock and left numerous tenants facing rent increases and eviction processes.

His proposal to change this course is based on three measures. The PSOE-M proposes applying the state Housing Law in the region, recovering protections against evictions, and launching the largest public housing plan in the history of the Community of Madrid.

Ayuso rejects declaring stressed areas and applying the price control mechanisms provided for in state regulations. Her Government maintains that intervening in the market reduces supply, while maintaining a policy based on collaboration with private developers and construction on public land through concessions.

López has also defended that Congress approve the housing royal decree that the Government is negotiating with its partners. The text would include measures to prevent the eviction of vulnerable families without housing alternatives, extend contracts, and regulate temporary and room rentals.

The minister shares Sumar's demand to recover these protections, although he has avoided confirming whether the decree will reach the Council of Ministers on Tuesday. He has directed pressure towards PP, Junts, and the far-right Vox, whose votes have brought down previous housing measures.

"If they are going to continue voting in favor of vulture funds or in favor of citizens," López stated. Then he brought the debate back to Madrid, where much of his electoral confrontation with Ayuso will be played out. "If one Administration focuses on protecting housing and another focuses on protecting funds, we have a problem."