—It turns out there was a monster here. That has produced a shock tremendous. But once Pandora’s box is opened, there is no need to close it: let every last demon come out.
Nothing better sums up the anxiety experienced in Más Madrid than that description made by a source who knows its interiors perfectly. Two days after the fall of its founder, Iñigo Errejónfollowing an anonymous complaint on social networks, and one after the complaint to the police by actress Elisa Mouliaá, the party has been bunkered like never before. There is fear of aftershocks from the earthquake. Doubts about whether everything is already known, or almost everything, or only a small part of what happened. However, the silence imposed by the management does not cover the noise of the unprecedented internal tension caused by a crisis that has already claimed the politician’s former chief of staff, Loreto Arenillas.resigned as a deputy after being accused of trying to cover up a previous complaint; and that threatens to erode the leadership and credibility of the Minister of Health, Mónica García, and the parliamentary spokesperson in the Assembly, Manuela Bergerot.
This is what happens in the game during 48 frenetic hours that will forever mark its future and that of its current references.
Thursday the 24th. It is 3:37 p.m., and Alfonso Serrano, Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s right-hand man in the Madrid PP, takes the floor in the plenary session of the Assembly.
“As general secretary of the PP of Madrid, I have to start by rejecting that adjective (fascist) that you have used against my party,” Serrano starts addressing a representative from Más Madrid. “I will never use an adjective such as fascist, nor others perhaps much harsher, precisely today, in which its founder, hiding behind something as serious as mental health, leaves all his positions accused of very serious things” , go on. “And out of respect for the presumption of innocence, I’m going to stay there.”
The faces of the Más Madrid deputies are a poem. Their cell phones vibrate. Around 4:30 p.m., everyone reads the same message in the common Telegram chat: they are called to a meeting on the first floor of the building attached to the chamber, where the party offices are located. When the time comes, Bergerot explains to them the steps that have been taken regarding the Errejón case for two days.
The earthquake is total. Más Madrid is a small party, of Madrid dimensions, where there are officials who have known Errejón since they were children in Pozuelo de Alarcón, and political veterans who reached the Assembly with a career already made.
In the following hours, some cry, according to two interlocutors. Others enter shocksince “an idol” has fallen into disgrace, “the one they believed to be a superman with superpowers,” according to a derogatory description from a party source. There are those who immediately make a dispassionately practical analysis of the situation: “Thank goodness it wasn’t close to the elections, this greatly erodes our brand.” And the project leaders, “the bosses,” as they say internally, are preparing to manage the crisis from three premises.
First, separate Más Madrid from Errejón, its founder. Second, face the Arenillas situation. And third, build a discourse that openly recognizes that the party has made a mistake, since it has known since 2023 about the case reported anonymously on networks.
“The state of shock “Where the party finds itself has nothing to do with the decisions that are made, because the bosses are relentless,” says a party source about Arenillas’ departure. “It has to do with the fact that there is a period of mourning,” he admits. “We all knew that Errejón was a difficult person to work with, yes, but not this.”
This is how we get to Friday the 27th. There is no better measure of the credibility crisis faced by a party that has built its strategy on the axis of feminism and environmentalism than the responses to a tweet by Minister García in which the former speaker of the Assembly recognize that the formation has not known how to do “enough” in the face of the accusations against Errejón. It has passed noon, and criticism of a cover-up is not limited only to social networks. Messages loaded with “anxiety” reach different party officials, demanding to do something, say something, react to the controversy.
But Más Madrid and its spokespersons remain silent. While its public representatives gather naturally in different parts of the capital, in person or virtually, “to live and cry together” a day of the cross, the management faces the case of Arenillas.
“There were no doubts,” says a highly regarded source. “But it was extremely painful,” he admits. “She resisted (leaving the minutes). It was even ridiculous.”
It is not a casual reference. At 9:26 p.m., after a marathon day, Más Madrid publishes a statement announcing that Arenillas refuses to resign as a deputy. Less than a quarter of an hour later, at 9:40 p.m., the aforementioned, who has already been removed from all her organic positions, publishes a letter in which she communicates that she is leaving the minutes, a personal and non-transferable decision.
“The statement acted as a pressure measure,” says a source who has the confidence of Minister García.
“In view of the serious events that we are learning about, we believe that it is evident that from Más Madrid we have not done things well,” the party acknowledges in that text from Friday night, where it describes as “completely insufficient” its performance on the case of 2023, and assumes “responsibility for the consequences that this action may have had.” And he concludes: “Let all those who have to fall fall.”
However, Arenillas’ exit is equivalent to using a band-aid where a tourniquet is needed. First, because the former deputy leaves denying the facts with which she is accused, accusing the management of using her as a “scapegoat”, and stating that Bergerot had known about the case since 2023, as organizational secretary. Second, because after reading that her training accuses her of having mediated on her own in the case reported online, she rebels and denounces that Más Madrid was the one who decided to shelve the matter, and that it has not respected her presumption of innocence. And third, because two days in a row of shake-ups and crossed accusations leave the organization out of position, groggyand without words.
That is why the autumn conclave called for this weekend is cancelled. And that is why the party is looking for a way to resume normal activity in its opposition work, to reach the next plenary session of the Assembly, on November 7, with more than just its head down. Ayuso, they assume in Más Madrid, will be ready that day to collect several outstanding accounts, mention all her demons, and extend as much as possible a crisis that for now seems to be falsely closed.
