The fall of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's Education counselor, Emilio Viciana, has not been a simple technical replacement. According to information gathered exclusively by ElConstitucional.es from various highly reliable sources within the PP of Madrid, the dismissal is the culmination of a hidden war between the two great "gurus" of the president: Antonio Castillo Algarra and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez.
Florida's "big row" between MAR and Algarra
The consulted sources place the origin of the rupture between Ayuso's two 'gurus' in a trip to Florida for the economic rescue of Madrid universities. "It all started there, because of the amounts that were wanted to be given to each university and because it was the second rescue that was done", they report from the popular environment. That trip would have ended in a "big row" between what in the party they describe as the "machirulo gurus": Castillo Algarra and MAR.
In short, such a dispute marked a before and after in the balance of internal power that surrounds Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
To understand Viciana's end as counselor of Education of the Community of Madrid, dismissed this Monday in the first major crisis of the regional Executive in this legislature, it should be added that he was “Algarra's quota,” as sources consulted by ElConstitucional.es report. His departure would not, therefore, be solely a decision on educational policy, but the outcome of a struggle for the ideological and organic control of Ayuso's project.
The placement of ‘Los Pocholos’: great unease in the PP of Madrid
The discontent in the PP of Madrid is not limited to the dismissal of the counselor. It has been going on for some time. And it is that different and prominent members of the PP of Madrid express to this newspaper the surprise —and anger— that the irruption in lists and positions of a group of profiles alien to militancy caused.
"Discomfort and surprise because no connection to the party was known. They appeared out of nowhere in that campaign. They presented themselves as members of civil society and in reality they were members related to the business society of Ayuso's guru [Castillo Algarra]", they point out.
Among the names that, according to these sources, Castillo Algarra managed to place on lists above historical affiliates are Pablo Posse, Mónica Lavín and Carlota Pasarón —the three resigned this Monday—. In the regional Executive, he would have also promoted, the same sources indicate, Luz Rodríguez de Llera Tejeda, Nicolás Javier Casas Calvo and Laura Castilla.
In the internal sphere of the party, this nucleus was known as ‘Los Pocholos’: a “very closed” group, of maximum trust of Castillo Algarra, with no organic trajectory in the party. “It seemed like an Opus nucleus, super closed and without their own voice among them. When one protested, they all protested the same”, describe the sources from the PP of Madrid consulted by ElConstitucional.es.
Background: a profound ideological shift
But the conflict would not be only of names, but of political direction. The sources emphasize that the placement of this group in key positions responded to a broader strategy: “It is not just a placement. It is a turn they intended to impose.”
The most symbolic case would have been that of Mónica Lavín, who they also placed as secretary of Families of the PP of Madrid. “It was a declaration of interests towards where they wanted to turn the party: from a liberal world to a conservative one, with a very defined family model”, they point out.
In that logic, the Ministry of Education became a strategic piece for a change of discourse and policies. Viciana, appointed by Castillo Algarra, was part of that mechanism.
Ayuso's Education Counselor's Dismissal Order
According to sources from the Ministry itself to ElConstitucional.es, it was MAR who, last weekend, directly requested Viciana's dismissal. On Monday, as an immediate resignation did not occur, the de facto protocol was activated: "They told [Viciana] not to appear at the event he had planned and to consider himself dismissed. That his replacement would be communicated that same day".
The new counselor, Mercedes Zarzalejo, finally attended the institutional event, thus staging a swift handover.
