Marta Higueras launches 'Independientes por Madrid' and moves the municipal board for 2027

Marta Higueras returns to Madrid politics with a new ballot for the 2027 municipal elections. The former right-hand woman of Manuela Carmena in the Madrid City Council presented this Monday ‘Independientes por Madrid’, a municipalist platform with which she aspires to compete for Cibeles from her own space, away from national party labels and focused on the daily problems of the capital.

Higueras has tried to distance herself from her political past in Ahora Madrid, Más Madrid and Recupera Madrid. She has defended that her project is born to talk about housing, cleanliness, mobility, transport, local commerce and security in the neighborhoods, with a central idea: to remove the City Council from national bickering. “The problem is thinking in national terms,” she said during the presentation, where she also insisted that Madrid needs a “municipalist and independent” candidacy.

The emergence comes amid a shake-up of the Madrid political scene. The PSOE has just opened an internal battle with the candidacy of Enma López against Reyes Maroto for the Mayoralty, while Más Madrid faces its own primaries with Rita Maestre as the main municipal reference. In this context, Higueras seeks to occupy a space among abstentionist voters, former supporters of Carmena’s movement and Madrid residents who reject block politics, although her entry may especially discomfit the progressive forces that aspire to challenge José Luis Martínez-Almeida for the City Council.

The former councilwoman recalled her management experience during Carmena’s term and also the budgetary agreement she closed in 2021 with Almeida from Recupera Madrid, when she incorporated nearly 60 measures into the municipal accounts. Her message insists on utility, agreement, and daily management. She also confirmed that she has spoken with Almeida, Rita Maestre, socialist representatives, Javier Ortega Smith, and Manuela Carmena before presenting the project.

The first reaction from Almeida has been favorable in its forms. The mayor has praised Higueras' "courage" and asked her for proposals "to build". In Más Madrid, Maestre has downplayed the impact of the new platform and has defended that her party remains the main force of the Madrid left. Higueras' candidacy still needs to specify names, program, and pact strategy, but its appearance already adds another piece to a municipal race that arrives in 2027 much more open than it seemed just a few weeks ago.