The Metro reduces its frequencies due to the 11N strike: which trains will run in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao

To establish minimum services during a public transport strike, a decision by the competent governmental authority, motivated and proportionate is required. The company cannot impose them freely: it must guarantee the indispensable mobility of the population without turning the strike into a normal working day.

1. Starting from the legal basis and prior notice

Article 28.2 of the Constitution recognizes the right to strike and requires guarantees to maintain essential community services. The general authorization to adopt these measures is found in Article 10.2 of Royal Decree-Law 17/1977, interpreted according to constitutional jurisprudence.

As a prior procedure, when the strike affects companies responsible for public services, Article 4 requires a ten calendar days' prior notice. This is recalled by STC 124/2013. This period allows preparation of the decision but does not justify automatically setting any level of service.

2. Determining who has competence

The decision must be made by the governmental authority that has competence and political responsibility over the affected service. It is not enough to identify where the vehicles circulate: the applicable distribution of competences for the specific transport must be verified.

The decision must come from an authority with guarantees of impartiality regarding the parties. The management of the operating company cannot replace it, even if it is a public company. STC 36/2007 emphasizes that a managing body does not necessarily have those guarantees.

3. Gathering information and evaluating proposals

The authority must know the territorial and personal scope of the strike, its duration, affected schedules, expected demand, and alternative transportation options. It must also weigh the service maintenance proposals made by the parties.

It is important to distinguish negotiating from reaching an agreement. STC 27/1989 clarifies that prior negotiation does not constitute, by itself, an indispensable constitutional requirement for the validity of the decision. This does not eliminate the hearing or consultation procedures that applicable regulations may require.

4. Approving a concrete and motivated resolution

The resolution must explain which essential needs are protected and why the chosen services are indispensable. It must specify the required provisions and justify their intensity: for example, trips, lines, and time slots. It is not enough to generically invoke the general interest or inconvenience to travelers.

Minimum services cannot pursue usual performance nor empty the strike of content. The motivation must allow understanding the imposed sacrifice and judicial control; it cannot be reconstructed later during the trial. These requirements are systematized in STC 62/2026.

5. Communicating and executing the decision

The resolution must be adopted before its application and communicated to those affected, complying with the corresponding publication and notification requirements. A universal publication period valid for all transports and administrations should not be presumed.

The company can organize shifts and designate workers to execute the decision, but within sufficiently defined criteria. It cannot receive an open authorization to decide by itself how much staff is deprived of striking.

6. Allowing judicial challenge

The decision can be challenged before the contentious-administrative jurisdiction, requesting precautionary measures to prevent a later ruling from arriving too late. STC 148/1993 requires effective and immediate judicial control. Lack of competence, insufficient motivation, or disproportionality may determine its annulment.

The Generalitat of Catalonia has exclusive competence to regulate land transport that takes place entirely within Catalonia, including metropolitan transport. It can plan, coordinate, manage, and inspect services and exercise tariff authority. However, this does not mean it directly manages all buses or metros: it must respect the powers of local and metropolitan administrations and state competences.

1. What the Generalitat can regulate

The main basis is Article 169 of the Statute of Autonomy. It grants the Generalitat responsibility for passenger and freight transport by road, rail, and cable that circulates entirely within Catalonia, "regardless of infrastructure ownership." Specifically, it includes:

• Organization and planning: establishing the regulatory framework and planning and coordinating transport services and activities.
• Administrative intervention: regulating the requirements and control mechanisms necessary to carry out transport activities.
• Urban transport: approving its regulation, as well as that of discretionary passenger transport in tourist vehicles.
• Tariffs: exercising tariff authority over land transport under its competence, according to the legal organization of each service.
• Management and inspection: organizing and supervising the services that correspond to it and verifying compliance with applicable conditions.
• Special services: regulating, among others, school, tourist, or health transport, respecting state competences on public safety.

It also has competence over road transport stations and transport, logistics, and distribution centers located in Catalonia. Therefore, its powers are not limited to line operation: they include system organization elements.

2. What corresponds to the Barcelona Metropolitan Area

It is essential to distinguish regulating transport from being the owner and providing a service. Article 14 of the Law 31/2010 of the AMB grants the Barcelona Metropolitan Area its own competences:

• Collective urban public surface passenger transport, except the tram system integrated into Catalonia's railway system.
• Provision of underground public transport, according to sector legislation and without prejudice to the Generalitat's competences.
• Administrative regulation and intervention of taxis, chauffeur-driven vehicles, and similar modes when they originate and end within the metropolitan area.
• Approval of the metropolitan urban mobility plan, respecting the powers of the territorial mobility authority.

Additionally, the law considers the AMB territory a unitary management area: transport that runs entirely through it is urban, even if it crosses several municipalities. Therefore, crossing a municipal boundary does not automatically turn a line into a service managed by the Generalitat.

3. Coordination and limits vis-à-vis the State

Metropolitan coordination has a specific instrument: Decree 48/1997 approved the establishment of the consortium Autoritat del Transport Metropolità. This coordinating function must be distinguished from the ownership of each service and the Generalitat's regulatory competences.

The territorial criterion of the Statute also sets a limit: its exclusive attribution does not include, by that title alone, services that go beyond Catalonia. For railway services connecting with other communities or international transit, Article 169 provides for the Generalitat's participation. It also requires its prior report to integrate entirely Catalan lines into others of a higher scope.

The Law on Land Transport Regulation requires coordination among administrations and respect for their respective competences. In short, the Generalitat has broad normative and planning powers, but does not concentrate all metropolitan decisions: for each action, the route, mode of transport, and owning administration must be distinguished.

The current president of the Community of Madrid is Isabel Díaz Ayuso, from the People's Party, who has held the position since August 2019. Her career passed through political communication, the Assembly of Madrid, and a vice-ministry before reaching the regional Presidency. Since May 2022, she also presides over the PP of Madrid, thus combining the leadership of the regional government and her party in the region.

Education and early steps

Born in Madrid on October 17, 1978, Ayuso holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University and postgraduate training in political communication and protocol. Before fully dedicating herself to politics, she worked in media and communication departments of companies and foundations, according to her official biography.

Her first responsibilities in the Madrid PP were linked to digital communication and electoral campaigns during Esperanza Aguirre's tenure. She carried out tasks in the party's internet area, a specialization that preceded her career as a public representative and continued to be part of her organizational responsibilities (profile on Demócrata).

Assembly and government experience

In 2011 she was elected for the first time as a deputy in the Assembly of Madrid. She renewed her seat in 2015 and, after those elections, served as deputy spokesperson of the People's Parliamentary Group. This stage marked her transition from communication tasks to parliamentary responsibilities before joining the regional Executive (official biography).

Between September 2017 and May 2018, she was Vice Minister of Presidency and Justice. Subsequently, between 2018 and 2019, she assumed communication responsibilities in the Madrid PP as secretary and deputy secretary. Her path before the Presidency thus combined parliamentary activity, administrative experience, and party organizational work (political career).

2019: arrival at the Presidency

In 2019, she led the PP candidacy for the Community of Madrid. Although her party was not the most voted force, she obtained the necessary support to be invested president in August. She formed a coalition government with Ciudadanos and had parliamentary support from Vox: Ciudadanos participated in the Executive, while Vox remained outside it (timeline of her presidency).

The COVID pandemic marked a central part of her first term and public projection. It was one of the highlighted episodes of her first years leading the Community and is also among the political matters included in the announcement of her autobiography, according to Demócrata's information.

2021-2023: electoral and organizational consolidation

In 2021, she called early elections, strengthened her electoral position, and was re-invested president. Unlike 2019, she formed a PP-only government, without repeating the coalition with Ciudadanos. This was the second electoral milestone of her presidential term (political timeline).

In May 2022, she assumed the presidency of the Madrid PP, adding regional party leadership to her institutional responsibility (profile on Demócrata). In the 2023 regional elections, she obtained an absolute majority and renewed the Presidency, this time with her own parliamentary majority to support her government (official biography).

Her career can be summarized in three stages: communication and party organization; parliamentary activity and vice ministry; and regional Presidency since 2019. The milestones of 2021, 2022, and 2023 consolidated, respectively, her solo government, her organizational leadership, and her absolute majority.