Pedro Sánchez's “non-resignation” was going, yes or yes, to capture a good part of the interest of this morning's Cibeles Plenary Session. And so it has been. However, the most tense moment has come with another issue outside of the controversial performance, as well as his statements yesterday, by the President of the Government: the granting of the 2024 Medals of Honor, among other groups, to the Jewish community of the capital and to the Toro de Lidia Foundation.
In the middle of the debate, and when the Councilor for Culture, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, defended the medal for the Toro de Lidia Foundation, Rita Maestre, leader of Más Madrid and the first opposition party, has been expelled from the Cibeles Plenary. The reason, the label “Nazis” that he would have directed on “repeated occasions” to the municipal group of Vox. The councilor himself, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, notified the president of the Plenary Session of this situation: “Mr. President, Mrs. Maestre has repeatedly called the Vox councilors Nazis, and I would ask you to please rectify. It's enough to insult.”
The expulsion has been taken by the president of the Plenary, Borja Fanjul, after having warned the Más Madrid spokesperson on three occasions. Previously, he called the mayor to order for not having the use of the floor. A warning that he also sent to Maestre. “The regulations do not allow me to expel you. If not, you would be expelled from the Plenary Hall,” Fanjul first addressed her. After reiterating her protests, Maestre was expelled, while she continued with her protests and a “come on, man!” Several of her companions followed in her footsteps. “The Más Madrid councilors who want to leave the Plenary Session, we would appreciate it if they left quietly,” Fanjul warned.
The socialist councilor Enma López came out in defense of Maestre and criticized Fanjul's “hardness” because “no one can be called a Nazi but the President of the Government can be called Hitler.” Subsequently, the vice mayor, Inma Sanz, has given more details on the matter. Eduardo Rubiño, Maestre's colleague in Más Madrid, would also have called the Vox councilors “Nazis”, in addition to telling him to “shoot” Federico García Lorca. “What Mrs. Maestre has said and what Mr. Rubiño has said is an act of savagery that cannot be allowed in a democratic plenary session,” added Sanz.
Later, outside the chamber, Maestre acknowledged having insulted the Vox councilors “at a closed microphone.” And he stated that this was “the confirmation of a truth”, because In the demonstrations on Ferraz Street “there were Nazi flags and Vox people.” In addition, he criticized the “hypocrisy” of the PP, which has “normalized” that its councilors They are called “terrorists and Hamas Madrid.”
Also before journalists, José Luis Martínez-Almeida has referred to the controversy. In her opinion, the leader of Más Madrid is “taking a while to come back and apologize” because his attitude has been “absolutely reprehensible”.
Finally, the Plenary approved, with Más Madrid voting against, its 2024 Medals of Honor to the Jewish community of the capital, the Rayo Vallecano football club and the historian Carmen Iglesias, which will be awarded on the city's patron saint's day. , San Isidro, next May 15. In the same way, The 14 Medals of the City of Madrid were approved, among them for the aforementioned Toro de Lidia Foundationthe Hombres G group, the San Ginés chocolate shop or the three State Security Forces and Bodies that operate in the capital: National Police, Civil Guard and Municipal Police.