Almost 15 years after the inauguration of Line 7B of the Madrid Metro, Isabel Díaz Ayuso this Thursday became the first president of the Community of Madrid to recognize a cause-and-effect relationship between infrastructure works and problems on the foundations of 200 houses in San Fernando de Henares, a municipality east of the capital. The consequences of the landslide caused by the suburban since 2007 are not just cracks, shaken foundations, windows that do not close and doors that do not open. They are also the 27 families evicted at this time. Your broken dreams. And a controversy that does not stop: how much it costs to fix the damage, how many more houses will have to be thrown away, and how much compensation will be paid to those affected.

“This work is now 14 years old, it is generating serious problems, and my government is doing nothing but trying to solve them,” Diaz Ayuso has acknowledged at the parliamentary headquarters, breaking the calculated silence maintained by his predecessors in the regional presidency. Neither Esperanza Aguirre, nor Ignacio González, nor Cristina Cifuentes, nor Ángel Garrido, nor Pedro Rollán admitted that the work had to do with the problem of the houses. Neither do the numerous reports commissioned by the Administration, which hint at causality, but do not establish it exhaustively. A trend that began to break Garrido, already as Minister of Transport, in a speech at the Madrid Assembly in December 2019; that was followed last week by his successor in office, David Pérez, and that Diaz Ayuso culminated this Thursday.

“We deeply regret the problems that are occurring in San Fernando,” said the conservative leader. “This situation comes from the past, but in the present we are giving it absolute priority. We have more than 30 million invested ”, he added. And he has promised: “We are going to assume the cost of restoring all the affected homes, we are going to compensate the families whose homes we cannot fix. We are pitching our shoulders ”.

The confession It is a milestone for those affected. And a surprise for the technicians specialized in the controversy. “It is abnormal that the counselor himself has admitted that the cause [del problema en las casas] It is from the subway works ”, said, before the pronouncement of Díaz Ayuso, an expert familiar with the details of the problem. “Everyone in the reports has taken great care to establish it,” he added. “Surprisingly, the problem in the houses has worsened. Why is it so late? There is a factor of proximity, but not of concurrence ”.

We are going to assume the cost of rehabilitating all the affected homes, we are going to compensate the families whose homes we cannot fix

Isabel Díaz-Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid

To get to this point, that of the admission of the problem and its cause, the PSOE has had to spend long months undermining the opposition. Javier Corpa, the socialist mayor of San Fernando de Henares, has mobilized together with the affected residents, who in summer demonstrated before the Royal Post Office and this Thursday they will do so before the Assembly. And the PSOE has taken the matter over and over again to the Chamber, until it has dedicated a question to Díaz Ayuso in the control session this Thursday.

“So far you have shown that you are incapable of joining and building. Rather, it has divided and destroyed ”, has started Pilar Sánchez Acera, who has replaced the spokesman Juan Lobato, on paternal leave for the birth of his third child. “We are seeing it even with his party, what is not going to happen with Madrid society. You still have the opportunity to rectify ”, he continued. “Call the mayor of San Fernando! A global solution is needed. These solutions must go to the Budgets, and its agreement with Vox not only excludes millions of Madrilenians, but also the residents of San Fernando de Henares ”.

Meeting of Ayuso and Monastery

Díaz Ayuso, who started the day by meeting with Rocío Monasterio, a spokesperson for the extreme right, to celebrate the budget agreement, has not twisted the gesture. Nor when Mónica García, from Más Madrid, has criticized her government – “They are sick of sectarianism. They are profoundly inept, “he said. Or when Alejandra Jacinto, from Podemos, has made him ugly that he does not attend to the social emergencies of the region: “They are trashy constitutionalists.”

Normal. Once the 2022 Budgets were tied, the first in the region since 2019, Díaz Ayuso has ensured the stability of the legislature. From now on, all your efforts can focus on the following goals: achieving the presidency of the PP in Madrid and preparing the municipal and regional elections of 2023.

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