Madrid 2015 Elections
The political situation in Madrid has taken a 180-degree turn from what, until a few months ago, was the norm. The origin of all of this was, in short, the regional and municipal elections that took place last year month of May 2015. On the one hand, after more than a decade in which the Popular Party held the presidency of the city hall of the Spanish capital quite comfortably, the latter passed into the hands of Manuela Carmena, a former judge who was the leader of the new formation Ahora Madrid. On the other hand, although Cristina Cifuentes managed to win the elections for the presidency of the autonomous community of Madrid., needed the support of Citizens to achieve this.
Let us first focus on the issue of the mayoralty. Manuela Carmena, leader of the independent but Podemos-linked formation known as Ahora Madrid, managed to win the mayoralty despite failing to beat the Partido Popular in the polls. However, the difference between votes and councillors was so small that, with only the support of Antonio Carmona's Partido Socialista Obrero Español, she got enough votes to be sworn in. All this, of course, in the face of fierce criticism from Esperanza Aguirre.
Since then, Manuela Carmena has had a relatively turbulent few months. Although it is true that, at first, she had to deal with the crisis caused by the xenophobic comments made by one of her councillors on the social network Twitter, little by little everything has returned to normal. Moreover, despite the laws dictated by the Spanish government and the jurisdiction in force, it has managed to pass measures against evictions with varying degrees of success. It has also managed to reduce the costs of local public administrations by abolishing some privileges and thus reducing the city's total debt.
The pollution cloud was and continues to be one of the major problems that the mayoress of Madrid is having to deal with. It reached such high levels that various protocols had to be activated with the aim of reducing traffic in the Spanish capital, to the dissatisfaction of many of its inhabitants. In addition, the last Three Kings Parade held on 5 January this year was not without controversy either, with the city council deciding that two women should dress up as kings.
For its part, the regional government of Cristina Cifuentes and the Partido Popular in collaboration with Ciudadanos has also had to face multiple obstacles. The Popular Party leader, from the outset, tried to present herself as a breath of fresh air by disassociating herself from the corruption schemes that had marked the previous governments of Esperanza Aguirre, Ignacio González and Alberto Ruiz Gallardón. A task that, of course, is not being easy because the main causes of these plots are still being investigated by judges and new scandals seem to come to the fore every day.
In short, Madrid is experiencing new times and new ways of doing politics. As is often the case, the Spanish capital has been a pioneer, along with Barcelona, in giving way to the latest movements against the traditional parties. A hopeful future?
