Isabel Díaz Ayuso: “Now comes the big blow in Catalonia”

The Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is very critical of the so-called “Catalan quota” and assures that “this is not about money but about sovereignty, impunity and illegality.” Thus, she advocates electoral reform, with the aim of “preventing us from being in the hands of minorities who hate us in the future.” Finally, she warns that the “great Catalan coup” is nothing other than the “referendum.”

Is there room to talk about regional financing in the current context?

The current financing system was devised by Zapatero to benefit the nationalists who, as corrupt business as they are, will never be satisfied. Having said that, mixing the pact with ERC with financing is a deception, because this is not about money but about sovereignty, impunity and illegality. About breaking us up. And from there come all the lies like the so-called “singularity of Catalonia”, as if the others were not. Each person, family or region, fortunately, is unique. And we are a country of contrasts, but also of sister regions where national sovereignty is the mother they intend to finish off. We are not a federal country, nor is it convenient for us to be one. They invent singularities for Catalonia and the rest of us are denied our own: we are a region of openness, freedom and low taxes. Why don’t they respect this? Because they are liars who cowardly try to get their hands on businessmen, ruin the middle class and blame everything on the PP. Thank goodness the unity of the Popular Party and its strength will be able to face the big blow, which is what is coming. I have been warning about this for some time, the newspaper archives are there, and the big blow is here.

What do you mean by the “big coup”? You have been talking about it insistently throughout the interview.

As I said before, this is not just about money. This is about Spain and how to prevent us from once again being in the hands of minorities who hate us and who have been working for years to undermine us from within. That is why, among other measures, we must reform the electoral system so that they do not operate again with the power that the Spanish people have not given them at the ballot box.

But what is the “big blow” in particular? Can’t Illa be a shield to stop it? We have already seen that a certain normality returns to the Generalitat with the Spanish flag, with the presence of the Kings…

Illa is an absolute trap that disguises the truth. The coup plotters already have impunity and unlimited money to finish off what they have been trying to do for so many years. Meanwhile, the one who was the worst Minister of Health during the pandemic in Europe, minimally fulfills his obligations and everyone goes crazy applauding. Putting up the Spanish flag! That was all that was missing! I want to remember that the PSOE was the one who started with Montilla to impose the labeling in Catalan and Illa will advance along the path marked out for him by the independentists because they are the same. By the way, he has gotten there through other people’s merits, such as the restoration of legality through 155, bringing the criminal coup plotters before the Justice, the calamitous management of the independentists and the implosion of Ciudadanos. Those are all his merits. The “coup” is the referendum.

Is this where you think the independence movement is heading after losing the Generalitat?

They govern in Spain and have their president eating out of their hand. They operate with a clear roadmap. The next step is going to be the big blow, they continue with their process of breaking up and now it will be through a referendum, which is, by all accounts, illegal. Sánchez has eliminated all legal and economic counterweights. How can they go back and undo so much destruction?

But they have not emerged strengthened from the Catalan elections; the message from the Catalans has been precisely that they want to turn the page on all that.

The independence movement has not abandoned its path of rupture. While they are carrying out the referendum, they will continue to expel Spain from Catalonia, which is their underhanded and treacherous way of creating a paralegal nation, as if it were a new country. Of course, living off the rest of the Spaniards. Money is money.

Once the amnesty for Puigdemont is effective, will Junts be a comparable party with which to dialogue and agree on economic and social issues?

At this point, no. We must stop living under the blackmail of these anti-Spanish, authoritarian and disloyal minorities. That is why I defend a new electoral law that puts everyone in their rightful place according to the results of the ballot boxes.

Do you not even see room for normalizing relations with them in anything other than territorial policy? The economic and social programs have quite a few points in common.

I wouldn’t go even around the corner with people who have those principles, who work to end Spain, and who think with that xenophobic discourse. Although, fortunately, it is not up to me to make that decision in the Congress of Deputies.