Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo has chosen Móstoles to launch one of her pre-campaign messages ahead of the general elections on November 29. There, together with the PP mayor, Manuel Bautista, and the party's general secretary in Madrid, Alfonso Serrano, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's number two for the Madrid constituency has promised to "clean Spain" like the Puerta del Sol after the eviction of the housing encampment.
The visit has also left an image of political support for Bautista, who is being investigated by a judge following a complaint filed by a former councilwoman from his own party for alleged sexual and workplace harassment. When expressly asked about this support, Álvarez de Toledo defended the mayor's presumption of innocence and accused Pedro Sánchez's government of applying this principle differently depending on who it affects.
"I support a very important principle that this Government has not understood either, which is that of the presumption of innocence," said the popular candidate. In her opinion, the Executive "only accepts the presumption of innocence for its own, never for outsiders."
Bautista has again rejected the accusations and his defense has requested the dismissal of the case. The investigation remains open and there is no conviction against the mayor for these events. The presumption of innocence protects him while Justice examines the complaint and carries out the proceedings.
The event took place on the same day it was announced that the judge has set a new date to hear the mayor as a defendant. It will be on February 26, 2027, after the statements of several witnesses scheduled for January and February. His appearance had initially been scheduled for October and later postponed to December 1.
A pending complaint and the support of the PP of Madrid
The former councilwoman filed her complaint in February against Bautista and against the Popular Party. In it, she attributes to the mayor alleged crimes of sexual and workplace harassment, as well as coercion, injuries, disclosure of secrets, and acts against her moral integrity. The action against the party questions the response she received when she tried to report what happened through internal channels.
The woman ratified her complaint before the judge in June. According to her account, the mayor had made several sexual propositions to her and, after rejecting them, she would have suffered a situation of isolation and workplace harassment. These are accusations that Bautista denies and that are pending judicial investigation.
The former councilwoman left the City Council and the PP in October 2024. Before that, she had tried to get the party leadership to address her situation and had sent communications to the circle of the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The judge admitted the complaint and subsequently rejected the defense's request to close the investigation at that stage. The continuation of the procedure allows for the practice of proceedings to clarify the facts; the admission of a complaint does not mean that its content has been proven.
Ayuso had already publicly defended Bautista's management after it became known that the case was moving forward. This Tuesday, the mayor received Álvarez de Toledo and Alfonso Serrano, two front-line PP leaders, in Móstoles, during a visit with militants and neighbors.
Asked about the case, the mayor assured that he would appear before the judge when summoned and said he faced it with "absolute tranquility". He also defended that he would remain in charge of the City Council. Bautista was on the PP list for Congress for Madrid in 2023, although he does not appear on the candidacy for the upcoming 29N.
During the visit, Álvarez de Toledo took her criticisms of the Government to Puerta del Sol, evacuated at dawn after weeks of camping for the right to housing. "We are going to clean Spain as we are going to clean Sol," she stated, before calling the protest an "illegal and uncivil occupation" at the service of Sánchez.
Vamos a limpiar España como se ha limpiado Sol. pic.twitter.com/zhhuaLK8YE
— Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (@cayetanaAT) November 3, 2026
The phrase places a social demand for access to housing within its electoral attack on the Executive. The encampment began after a demonstration for that right and its participants demanded for weeks measures against rental prices and evictions. Part of the organizing committees had already announced their intention to leave the square and move the mobilization to the neighborhoods and to the general strike on November 11.
The Government Delegation in Madrid defended the eviction as a "last resort" measure after considering that the concentration had lost its initial purpose. The operation resulted, according to its data, in 334 people evicted and two arrested.
