Madrid president Isabel Díaz Ayuso is waging a war on woke and seeking to turn Madrid into the “Florida of Europe”, according to the Telegraph.
With two crunch elections on the horizon, Madrid’s president is ready for the political fight of her life: to topple the socialist-communist coalition Government of Pedro Sánchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party.
“It is not a Government; it is a machinery of power,” she told the Telegraph during a visit to London. “They are trying to change Spain through the back door.”
The Right-wing firebrand is running for re-election in May in a vote seen as crucial before the battle for Spain’s future is fought in December’s general elections. Her supporters praise her as “Saint Isabel”, but the regional leader is a hate figure for the Left, which brands her a “Trumpista” or “fascist”.
Last week, she travelled to London to meet international investors she hopes to attract to Madrid with low taxes and a business-friendly environment – in the same way Ron DeSantis, the frontrunner for the Republican candidacy in the U.S., has helped turn Florida into an economic powerhouse.
Like her American counterpart, she used devolved powers to make Madrid the first Spanish region free from lockdown and herself one of her party the Partido Popular’s biggest stars. Madrid was gripped by ‘Ayusomania’ as it enjoyed an economic boost that outstripped shuttered Spanish regions.
Her pro-freedom stance extends to tackling wokeness head-on, as she tells the Telegraph:
The woke movement is a real problem in Spain because they are authoritarian. There is less freedom to make humour, watch films and be an adult, basically.
Young people are pitted against each other; it has weakened relations between men and women. If older people want to speak frankly to young people they cannot do that. It is a kind of paternalism and authoritarianism – because who decides what is offensive?
Ayuso has also attacked a trans policy similar to Scotland’s disastrous Gender Recognition Reform Bill, and does not have time for eco-authoritarianism either:
She remains suspicious of green regulations, co-opted by the “woke movement”, that risk harming jobs and business. “The ones who wrap themselves in the flag of ecology, they don’t listen to real people,” she said. “The key is to conserve and keep the natural heritage, whereas now it has been moved into other issues, such as how to live and consumption. It should not be an ideological fight, but some have managed to make it that.”
Worth reading in full.
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