Vox spokesperson Isabel Pérez Moñino strongly questioned Madrid's ability to accommodate an additional million inhabitants in the coming years without its public services, transport, and housing access collapsing. Pérez Moñino accused the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of presenting this growth as a "blessing" while thousands of Madrileños already suffer the consequences of a "strained" region.
During her address in the Plenary session, the Vox leader warned that "Madrid has limits, and so does the patience of Madrileños." Pérez Moñino insisted that the region has grown "disproportionately" without infrastructure, housing, or public services adapting at the same pace, referencing the difficulties for young people to become independent, the Metro's overcrowding, and long waits for healthcare appointments.
The Vox spokesperson directly asked the president where Madrid would "put" another million inhabitants, describing the region as an "infinite human vacuum cleaner" and urging Ayuso to stop turning Madrid into her "personal demographic experiment."
A region already collapsed, overcrowded, and saturated needs more collapse, more overcrowding, and more saturation. Good luck with that.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso responded sharply, reproaching Vox for conflating "inhabitants" with "immigrants." "I said inhabitants, not immigrants," the president retorted, defending Madrid as an "open, plural, and growing" region. Ayuso emphasized that the Community of Madrid does not have competencies in immigration, foreign affairs, borders, or security, placing responsibility on the central government and criticizing its "lack of law and order."
The president asserted that Madrid is not a region of "nationalism" but a territory where "more children are born" and citizens arrive "from all corners of Spain and the world," highlighting that the region is experiencing "its best moment."
Regarding housing, Ayuso stated that 70,000 homes with some form of protection are being developed, 14,000 of them under the Plan Vive. She acknowledged that a Madrid with an additional million inhabitants will require planning for water, transport, and public services. The president also highlighted the role of immigrants in key sectors like construction, affirming that "all together they work in a plural region" and that in Madrid, "integration happens when you come to work and be one more."
