Isabel Díaz Ayuso with Isabel La Católica. The photo, taken in Washington, is more than just a portrait of the president of Madrid with the statue of the queen. Done at the gates of the Organization of American States, where he meets with its secretary general, Luis Almagro, it summarizes that the trip to the United States of the popular leader stresses some political and diplomatic conventions. Díaz Ayuso, a regional president, meets with representatives of international organizations. It collides in the distance with the president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. Criticize the one from Mexico. And his apologies for the American conquest make Pope Francis ugly. By the time Thursday arrives, and only a handful of congressmen go to the meeting with which the tour ends, it is already known why Díaz Ayuso has maintained a trip coinciding with the Pablo Casado PP convention. From controversy to controversy, find a great showcase.
“Without knowing all the details of the trip, it can be deduced that some of his statements clearly exceed the margins of action for which the law allows him, in addition to incurring extravagances that border on the grotesque”, points out Mariola Urrea, Professor of International Law Public of the University of La Rioja, which recalls the limits established in the Foreign Action and Service law for the international activity of the Autonomous Communities. And he continues: “Something, on the other hand, consistent with the form of political action that [Díaz Ayuso] also internally, so it should not cause any surprise ”.
“Article 3 of the law speaks of the necessary loyalty between administrations in matters of foreign action, and article 11 refers to the fact that the Communities have to submit to the planning instruments designed by the State in its foreign action”, recalls Joan David Janer, professor of public international law at the University of the Balearic Islands. “It does not seem very opportune and that what was said in relation to the Pope on a trip to the United States makes sense,” he continues. “But the criticism that has been made of the Pope is also part of the gratuitous political criticism, for the internal consumption of his voters,” he concludes, insisting that, in his opinion, Díaz Ayuso’s statements must be interpreted within the framework of ” the political strategy of confrontation PP-PSOE ”.
The possible conflict, in any case, does not go unnoticed by the president, whose team informed the Foreign Ministry before starting it. After meeting with the representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank, Díaz Ayuso proposes a collaborative project to be promoted, he emphasizes, “always with respect for the Government of Spain, which is the one who has direct responsibilities in the relationship with the Bank.” Nobody says anything about why, then, Díaz Ayuso has attended the appointment.
There are also meetings with investment funds. Or with the editorial team of the newspaper The Wall Street Journal. Or with the Hispanic caucus in the Capitol, where only five of the 38 expected representatives appear, and one, the Californian congressman of Mexican origin, Raúl Ruiz, expresses his disagreement with some of the comments made by the Madrid president about indigenous people during the tour. In all these appointments, a total of 13, Díaz Ayuso sells his project for Madrid and he leaves all of them with good words and without making any new investments for the region.
How much does the media and propaganda tour trip have to reinforce the image of Díaz Ayuso as a fashionable politician on the right? And how much of an attempt to lobby to attract investment, companies and businesses to Madrid?
The presidential entourage provides clues to answer those questions. The Minister of Economy, Javier Fernández Lasquetty, does not travel to the United States. Neither did the director of the Spanish Office, Toni Cantó, in charge of looking for business opportunities through the language. The Community’s media director general, the president’s press officer, or her powerful chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, do travel.
Consequently, the entire image of the trip is taken care of in detail. Can. Leadership. Independence. These are the concepts that the photographs and videos distributed by the presidential team try to convey. Telemadrid, which the PP and Vox control thanks to a legal change approved in the Assembly, gives extensive coverage to Díaz Ayuso’s journey through the United States, which includes an interview with a far from casual background: the White House. From his appointment with representatives of the Hispanic Society in New York, where he attacks indigenism and warns against the black legend, as if he had read Imperiophobia, there remains a photograph with a colossal series of Sorollas behind him. And there are the images that portray her crossing the streets of New York as if she were a character from Sex and the city. Always, haunted by the microphones and recorders of the Spanish media.
“The only thing that has changed with respect to the past of the trips of other regional presidents is the media attention,” says an expert in international relations who asks not to be identified. “That media attention is basically Spanish, so it is normal for her to continue doing domestic politics there, because that is what the media that follow her ask her about, so she is doubtlessly doing international politics, or diplomacy, and breaking any of these codes. “, Add. And he emphasizes: “I would not be scandalized that he does domestic politics on his travels, since he has never tried to do anything else, and his search for investments, which other regional presidents do, has been turned into domestic politics by the media.”
There is a precedent in Díaz Ayuso’s commitment to using international issues to make national politics. In January 2020, the president of the Community of Madrid saw how Sánchez did not receive Juan Guaidó, the interim president of Venezuela, in La Moncloa. He immediately organized a red carpet event and a mass bathroom for him at the Royal Post Office in Madrid, and gave him a mansion on the Canal de Isabel II for him to spend the night. It was the confirmation that the PP intended to use Madrid, where the Community and the capital govern, as the battering ram of its opposition, the Government of PSOE and Podemos.
More than a year and a half later, Díaz Ayuso replicates that strategy in the United States. There, for example, he is seen with Carlos Vecchio, Guaidó’s representative in Washington, who presents himself as Venezuela’s ambassador to the country.
“Being in meetings of political significance is very important, because they want to understand the meaning of our Administration,” defends the president of Madrid after meeting in Washington with the Global Americans think tank, which is the one who lends him that balcony with a view to the White House for an interview. “This drive was needed. Every time I have it clearer. It’s going to be a shock ”, he adds. “The purpose of this trip has been to make the Community of Madrid known as a place to invest, as well as to continue promoting Spanish culture and Hispanity,” he sums up in his farewell. And he diagnoses: “Taxes and excess bureaucracy are a drag on investment for Spain, they openly harm us, as well as the management of investor visas.”
A few hours later, Díaz Ayuso flies to Spain to be this Saturday at the national convention of the PP. There, Casado awaits him, the conflict opened by his intention to preside over the PP in Madrid, and the concern of a sector of the party that fears that he is taking positions for an eventual assault on the national leadership. She denies it. His trip to the United States, in any case, reinforces his image as the main icon of the formation: from New York to Washington, Díaz Ayuso has overshadowed the itinerant convention of the PP.
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