A little later than expected, but the right wing parties have not let go of the autonomous Community of Madrid. PP and Ciudadanos (Cs) needed a dozen votes from Vox to seal a government agreement and they got them. The formation of Albert Rivera had a difficult balancing act to disguise its alliance with the ultra rights of Vox, but it has ended up surrendering to their demands. The leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, has a second powerful territorial baron, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the autonomous community of Madrid who joins the Andalusian Juanma Moreno, president of the autonomous community of Andalusia. Pedro Sánchez rules Spain -as acting MP- but none of the three most populated autonomous communities -Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid- have a socialist president, and among the first seven, only the Community of Valencia with Ximo Puig follows the PSOE’s party line.
Díaz Ayuso has, before her, the task of breaking away from the links with corruption cases, after the former secretary general of the PP, Francisco Granados, was related to the Púnica case, a plot of corruption that commissioned public services for more than €250 million. There are also her predecessors, Esperanza Aguirre and Cristina Cifuentes, for which the Public Prosecutors Office has requested charging the PP with irregular financing. Ayuso's presidency has therefore been born with seemingly too heavy burdens, but the right closed ranks and Rivera seems ready to swallow it all. The criticisms for Cs' corruption have been blurred with agreements at the municipal councils and autonomous communities level, stemming from the electoral results of last 26th May elections.
With Diaz Ayuso’s nomination, Madrid becomes the liberal laboratory of the PP in economic matters and, above all, in taxation. Díaz Ayuso has announced the "biggest tax breakdown in history" for Madrid and wants to reduce the Personal Income Tax to 5.5% and significantly increase deductions for families. If the PP carries out its promise, the Community of Madrid, which is the one that has the lowest taxation on high incomes -21%- which makes an aggregate of 43.5%, meaning that in 2023 it would be taxed at 38%, exactly ten points less than the 48% which is currently applied to the highest incomes in Catalonia.
By the way, whatever happened to that mantra of the PIT reform in Catalonia, which used to be so disputed? Does anyone really want it then?