It took five years for the celebration of Dos de Mayo -day of the Community of Madrid- to have registered a moment of political tension greater than that of 2018. On that occasion, only one month before the motion of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy and with Cristina Cifuentes recently resigned from the regional Presidency in full controversy over her master's degree and after the dissemination of the old video stealing creams in a supermarket, the protagonists were Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, María Dolores de Cospedal and the famous empty chair that It was between the two companions then of the Council of Ministers, who did not even look at each other's faces.
This time the clash has been between La Moncloa and the Government of Puerta del Sol, something that a priori could be less shocking because they are two institutions with leaders of different signs at the helm, but which has left an image of unprecedented tension in this institutional act: a head of protocol physically preventing the Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, from accessing the tribune of the highest-level authorities to witness the civic-military parade of the ceremony at the one who had not been invited.
The person in charge of Protocol of the Ministry in question was the person who warned Bolaños during the celebration of Dos de Mayo to abandon his secondary position behind the catenaries where the authorities were located who were not expected to go up to the tribune of prominent personalities and deal with to ascend the steps before the surprised look of his own comrades in the ranks: the PSOE candidates for the Community and the Madrid City Council in the elections of May 28, Juan Lobato and Reyes Maroto, and the Government delegate in the region , Francis Martin.
Dressed in a suit and red tie, Chevi -as he is nicknamed- led the de facto political vice president in La Moncloa to the place where he ran into the arm of the head of Executive Protocol of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, prohibiting him from access. "The minister of Spain has to be there," he unsuccessfully tried to argue the current institutional position, which has been linked to the socialist acronym for more than 15 years.
The career of the head of Protocol of the current regional president has been linked to the Community of Madrid since 2005, during the term of Esperanza Aguirre. Since then, the person in charge of this area has been linked to different ministries, especially Education, where she spent a decade with the current press officer of the popular leader. She was one of the protagonists of the confrontation, repeating up to three times that the Community had "a perfectly established organization" and alleging that if the 23 ministers of the coalition Executive chaired by Pedro Sánchez come to go "the 23 could not go up." «Nobody knows the protocol like she does in this government. She has been respected and valued by all institutions for years », they point to her figure from Puerta del Sol.
His political career in the institutional sphere is linked to that of Bolaños, who was his Cabinet Director between February 2020 and July 2021 when he held the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Government. He now holds that same position with the rank of director general after the promotion of his boss to minister of the Presidency.
On the Dos de Mayo festival, he reprimanded the head of Protocol of the Community of Madrid for preventing Bolaños' access to the rostrum. "You are breaking the protocol decree," repeated over and over again who, before his arrival at La Moncloa, had been responsible for the digital communication of the PSOE.
Communication Director of the Community of Madrid since last February, he has always been linked in his career to the head of the Cabinet of the regional president, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez. In the regional government he exercised, until he occupied his new position, as his right hand and throughout his stage in the PP his names have been linked.
In the popular ranks, he has served as head of the Press and director of the party's Information Office and also as General Secretary of Information within the Central Government's Secretary of State for Communication, during the first stage in the Presidency of José María Aznar, and on Tuesday he was part of the Ayuso team that justified the ban on access to the minister.
The head of the External Relations and Protocol Service of the Madrid Assembly attended the scene with a face of circumstances along with Bolaños and Blázquez, but without intervening at any time. She has two decades of work experience in the organization of ceremonies and official acts, most of that time in the Vallecas regional Parliament.
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