The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has announced that the City Council will file a criminal complaint against the "political commissioner" Francisco Martín, the now ex-delegate of the Government who, he said, has left the position "out of a tantrum." The mayor justifies this judicial step "for inaction as a consequence of having committed an evident crime by allowing the occupation of public space" in Puerta del Sol.
The criminal action will be registered once the deadline set in the administrative procedure concludes. During the Plenary of Cibeles, and in response to a question from the Vox councilor, Arantxa Cabello, who demanded that the City Council act "with forcefulness" to put an end to the camping and argued that "we must exhaust every last possibility offered by the legal system," Almeida insisted that the City Council is intervening within the framework of its powers, something he exemplified with "the more than 200 sanctions" already processed and with the administrative requirement sent to the Delegation of the Government.
"We have conveyed all the problems that exist there, both from the point of view of hygiene, health, safety, and emergency," the mayor explained. "We made the administrative requirement and out of pure legal coherence we have to wait for the end of that deadline to be able to take criminal actions in case the camping in Sol has not been lifted," he added.
From Vox, Cabello has accused Pedro Sánchez of "wanting to turn Sol into the stage for the launch of his electoral campaign," although, in her opinion, "it has gone wrong for them and they have had to sacrifice the former delegate of the Government and create a firewall." The councilor has also maintained that Martín has submitted his resignation "because Vox has also filed a lawsuit demanding accountability."
Almeida has emphasized that "what is in Sol is not a camping, but an illegality and it is also not peaceful because there has been a sexual assault." At that moment he questioned the spokesperson for Más Madrid, Rita Maestre, reproaching her for not having heard "not a single condemnation of the sexual assault that has occurred in Sol."
The mayor has also directed his criticisms at the socialist spokesperson, Reyes Maroto, who the day before had described the camp as "peaceful." He has urged both of them to "sleep in Sol if it is an absolutely safe place, where absolutely nothing happens." "I would like you two to go there at night and explain to the people of Madrid from there, if you have the courage and the guts to do so, what the true situation is in which they find themselves," he challenged. Maroto replied that Martín "has been a better delegate" than him as mayor.
"I would put myself at the head of the Police to evict the camp"
"The City Council is doing everything possible. I can guarantee you that if this City Council had the competencies, I would put myself at the head of the Municipal Police to evict the camp in Sol," assured Martínez-Almeida.
He reiterated to the Vox group that the City Council is exhausting the available tools "adjusting to the legal framework" and has again attacked Martín, whom he defined as "a commissioner of sanchismo" who acted "against the Community" and as "an absolutely sectarian person who is surplus in politics."
The mayor has also criticized that the former delegate has left the position "for not being included in the lists." "When one is a government delegate, one must be up to the institutional responsibilities and if he were a government delegate and not a political commissioner, he would not have to leave because he is not placed on the lists," he insisted, describing his departure as an "improper tantrum but one that characterizes this person."
They will go to court "one minute after" the deadline expires
The deputy mayor of Madrid and head of Security and Emergencies, as well as municipal spokesperson, Inma Sanz, has recalled that on September 29 she sent a formal request to Martín "to comply with the law, to assume responsibility, and to act against that illegal camp in Sol."
She specified that "the deadline to respond ends this week and one minute after that deadline this City Council will go to court through the administrative route and, as the mayor has said, also of course through the criminal route against those who have allowed this illegal camp and continue to allow it in our streets."