Madrid's ‘Margaret Thatcher': Let's take the testosterone out of politics

Telegraph

17-03-2025

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative leader of Madrid, has much in common with Donald Trump and indeed many of the Right-wing leaders shaping world politics.
But there is a noticeable difference that sets her apart: her openness to mass migration.
Madrid is having a major moment, topping the charts for economic growth and investment amid a mammoth tourism boom fuelled by her low-tax, business-friendly policies.
The city is 'blazing a trail', as she modestly puts it during an interview in the presidential office, where she has ruled the Madrid region for almost six years.
'It is Spain's most fashionable region right now,' she said ahead of a speech on Monday at the Margaret Thatcher Conference in London.
So far, so good for those who care to listen from Washington.
However, while she has said she would continue to tow a pro-US line, she also wants to provide a safe haven for Latin American migrants, including many who have fled the political and economic decline of Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro, its Bolivarian socialist leader.
' We are the new Miami, an open door between Europe and the American continent where people come not only to find work but to bring their business and families – it's our version of the American dream,' Ms Ayuso said.
Last year, most European economies stagnated, but Spain's grew by 3.2 per cent, prompting the government to raise its 2025 growth forecast to 2.6 per cent.
The primary factors were mass migration and tourists keeping Spain the world's second most-visited country. Strong growth meant half a million new jobs were added to a record 21.3 million people in employment in 2024, 13.5 per cent of whom were migrants.
Madrid is leading the pack. The region Ms Ayuso presides over has overtaken Catalonia to become Spain's biggest regional economy, raking in more than 70 per cent of foreign investment in Spain last year.
'There is unprecedented international investment and global interest in Madrid,' she told The Telegraph, attributing the region's success to her Thatcherite policies of low taxation and removing barriers to enterprise.
The 46-year-old conservative firebrand is widely tipped to become Spain's first female prime minister, although she denies such lofty ambitions and pledges loyalty to the current leadership of Spain's People's Party (PP).
It is Ms Ayuso who noisily goes head to head with Pedro Sánchez, Spain's Left-wing prime minister, rather than Alberto Núnez Feijóo, the mild-mannered PP leader.
The president of the Madrid region contrasts the success of her economically liberal and socially laissez-faire Madrid with what she describes as an 'obsession' with wokery from the socialist-led national government.
Spain's regions can apply their own regional taxes on wealth and economic activity, but in 2021 Ms Ayuso announced that she had decided to scrap the lot. One of the last to go was a tax on the installation of gaming machines in bars.
'Madrid is the only place in Spain without its own regional taxes. We have applied low taxation, the right level of taxation. Madrid is the most competitive region, with the most digital employment and highest salaries, and the greatest openness to investment.'
Income tax in Madrid is the lowest in Spain across most earnings bands, thanks to a series of cuts made by Ms Ayuso's administration to its regional rates, which are applied on top of national basic levels.
By way of contrast, she claimed that Mr Sánchez's governments, backed by hard-Left parties, including Catalan and Basque separatists, have raised taxes 93 times since the socialist leader took power in 2018.
Margaret Thatcher is Ms Ayuso's role model in creating a liberalised economy where individuals flourish. But she is quick to deny having radical desires to take a Musk-style chainsaw to the public sector.
She insists she is a 'Spanish liberal', suggesting society and state must play some role – or risk chaos.
Ms Ayuso welcomed Javier Milei, Argentina's maverick president, to Madrid last year but she says there are significant differences in their political visions. Mr Milei has said that the concept of the state and taxation in general is 'immoral'.
Turning to today's trans-Atlantic relations, the Madrid leader expressed concern that tension between the Trump administration and other Western governments could cause a damaging split, as well as a worry that Ukraine will not get the peace deal it deserves.
'International leaders – and I mean all of them – need to apply more diplomacy and less testosterone to resolve this situation. But we mustn't forget that this was an invasion and we need to help Ukraine recover as quickly as possible.
'The lifestyle and values of the West cannot be broken apart in two weeks or a month like a house of cards. I refuse to accept that after centuries together, and especially after building the European Union, the West could fragment after a few weeks of heated rhetoric.'
She adds: 'My Madrid government is always pro-US, Nato, EU and especially pro-West. I am a total admirer of Reagan. Whenever I saw the US flag, I always thought these are my people.'
She is in good company with Mr Trump and Mr Milei, both of whom have clashed with Mr Sánchez.
Ms Ayuso believes Mr Sánchez's government is bent on telling people how to live, with further regulations on unhealthy food, and even whether you can have a pet, including a new qualification that would be required of dog owners.
'These laws go way beyond the normal sphere of government. There is a move toward judging people according to what you eat, what you wear, whether you are the right kind of man, the right kind of woman… They don't respect the space of the individual.'
Over the past year, Ms Ayuso's conflict with Mr Sánchez's national government has reached a new level after media revelations that Alberto González Amador, her partner, was being investigated by a Madrid court for alleged tax evasion.
Ms Ayuso and her team have argued that the case was deliberately leaked by Spain's attorney general, who is now himself the subject of a court probe for allegedly revealing secrets.
'There is a concerted state operation against me. The tax office opened an inspection against my partner, when he was not my partner, and what should have just ended up as a fine has now been a national issue for a year, fuelled by media outlets that are fed directly by government ministries.'
Ms Ayuso accused Mr Sánchez of using the case involving Mr González Amador to deflect from the fact that the prime minister's wife and brother are both being investigated for alleged corruption.
'They generate hatred to bolster their support. These cases are not comparable. My partner did not come to the table to do business like the wife of the prime minister. I have not used my position to benefit my partner with a single contract.'
Alleging a dirty tricks campaign by Spain's government, Ms Ayuso claimed that the recent robbery of a computer belonging to her partner's lawyer was 'not done by amateurs' and that the homes of friends and family had also been broken into.
'Watergate was a joke compared to this. Nixon was a good president with an international reputation, so it's wrong to compare him with Sánchez.'
Turning back to her home city, the 'new Miami', she points out that it will next year host its first Formula 1 Grand Prix and see another influx of visitors when Spain co-hosts the 2030 men's football World Cup with Portugal and Morocco.
' Madrid is the defence of freedom in all its forms. We saw this during the pandemic, and now in everyday life; the streets are buzzing, day and night, and everyone can find the lifestyle they want.'