The general secretary of the Popular Party of Madrid has launched sharp criticism against the Health Minister, following news of her intention to run as a candidate in the 2027 regional elections. From Torrelaguna, the popular leader stated that the citizens of Madrid already rejected the minister in previous elections and that her current move seeks a return to Madrid's politics before a possible departure from the central government.
This reaction from the Madrid PP's second-in-command comes just hours after the minister confirmed her willingness to once again lead her party's candidacy in the regional elections. Her stated goal is to unseat the current Regional President and end what she describes as her “damaging policies.” This announcement anticipates the electoral contest in the Community of Madrid and intensifies the confrontation between the Regional President's bloc and the Madrid left.
“"The Health Minister left the Madrid Assembly because the people of Madrid did not want her and she lost against the Regional President. It seems that now, facing the imminent end of the central government, before she is removed, she intends to return to the Assembly."
The popular leader has interpreted the minister's potential return to the regional arena as a forced rectification, rather than a genuine political decision. According to his analysis, the minister left the Assembly after her electoral defeat and is now trying to regain prominence in Madrid in anticipation of the central executive's likely decline.
Furthermore, the attack has extended to the minister's management of the Ministry of Health. The general secretary of the Madrid PP claimed that the minister has “Spanish healthcare up in arms,” alluding to the ongoing conflict with medical professionals over the Framework Statute and the strikes called by various professional unions in several autonomous communities.
The Madrid PP's strategy aims, on one hand, to discredit the minister's regional candidacy before it takes concrete shape. On the other hand, it seeks to portray her tenure in the central government as a political liability that would disqualify her from aspiring to the regional presidency again. The popular leader further escalated his tone by referring to the medical community's opposition to the minister's healthcare management, using this friction as an additional argument to question her leadership capacity in the region.
