The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has accused the left of acting like “vultures” and “scavengers,” reproaching Más Madrid and the PSOE for, in his opinion, using Maricarmen Abascal as an “electoral strategy” within the framework of the extraordinary Plenary Session held at the Madrid City Council.
Almeida has defended that the Popular Party (PP) will not take “a step back or bow its head” and has insisted that the political battle will be decided “at the polls, where the people speak.”
Reproaches for the minute of silence and criticism of Más Madrid and PSOE
During his speech, the mayor attacked the self-convened tribute by the left, given the lack of a formal call by the Presidency of the body, and stated that the left has “despised” and “humiliated” the memory of Maricarmen Abascal. “They despise Maricarmen’s memory so much, they humiliate Maricarmen’s memory so much, that they held a minute of silence that lasted 40 seconds,” he pointed out.
The mayor added that “one must be miserable to use her in the sectarian and partisan way that you use her,” referring to the groups of Más Madrid and PSOE. In his opinion, “it is not incompatible to respect Maricarmen’s memory and deeply regret her death” with criticizing what he has defined as the left’s regulations, which, he said, “evicted Maricarmen.”
The warning about “murderers” and the Special Plan
Almeida has also assured that the left “will end up saying” that Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Almeida are “murderers” because of Maricarmen Abascal, and he addressed Más Madrid and PSOE to state: “Here there are indeed scavenger vultures, they are you.”
Likewise, he has argued that if the left “respected Maricarmen’s memory and it wasn’t just a simple exercise of scavenging for you, you would vote today in favor of a Special Plan that allows construction in the next two years.”
According to the mayor, they don’t do it because “Maricarmen is not a person who suffered an eviction, she is an electoral strategy, she is a decoy to try to remain in power.”
The reference to evictions and the City Council’s management
Martínez-Almeida has maintained that it is also not incompatible to lament Abascal’s death with remembering that before her case there were “290,000 people evicted in Spain during their eight years in government.” In that same speech, he reproached the opposition for not remembering other similar cases, citing Olga, who, he said, committed suicide in Catalonia after being evicted.
“They did not observe a minute of silence or say a word because Olga committed suicide in Catalonia after being evicted. And I don’t remember the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia or the mayor of Barcelona holding a minute of silence,” the mayor affirmed before the Plenary.
Furthermore, he has defended that the administration that provided social assistance to Maricarmen Abascal was the Madrid City Council, and that the same administration would have allowed her return home. In his speech, he accused the Government of Spain of not having “lifted a single finger.”
He also asked, “Can you explain to the people of Madrid why Sareb’s homes are managed by BlackRock for 50 million euros?,” and added, regarding Reyes Maroto, that “where are the 184,000 homes that Pedro Sánchez promised?”
Interpellations to Rita Maestre
The Madrid mayor also directed his criticism at the spokesperson for Más Madrid, Rita Maestre, whom he reproached for her absence from the Sol encampment. “The Rita Maestre of 2011 would have kicked the Rita Maestre of 2026 out of that encampment,” he said, before asking her: “Why didn’t you go to the Sol encampment to show solidarity?”
In that part of his speech, Almeida stated that Maestre “has become the caste she denounced in 2011” and maintained that, fifteen years after 15M, “she has a job, she has a future, and she has a home.”
Furthermore, he even accused the left of “having spent more time printing posters than helping Maricarmen in life,” adding that “the Administration that provided social assistance to Maricarmen was the Madrid City Council” and that “the Administration that would have made it possible for Maricarmen to return home was the Madrid City Council.”
Closing of the speech
Almeida stressed that, in the face of critics, on November 29 “the polls will speak.”
“I have said it, against the scavengers, against those who use Maricarmen as an electoral strategy, against those who understand nothing but hatred and confrontation, on November 29 the polls will speak,” he concluded.