Isabel Díaz Ayuso

Isabel Natividad Díaz Ayuso (born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish politician and journalist serving as the president of the Community of Madrid since 2019.

She is the president of the People's Party of the Community of Madrid.

Born on 17 October 1978 in Madrid in the Chamberí district, her parents were involved in the trade of medical and orthopaedic goods.

She has a degree in journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and a master's degree in Political Communication and Protocol.

Although her party lost the autonomous elections for the first time since May 1991, she was later elected president by the Assembly of Madrid.

Her administration represented several firsts: it was the first time that the region was run by a coalition government—formed by Ayuso's own conservative People's Party (PP) and Citizens—and it was the first time that Vox propped up an autonomous executive in Madrid.

Affiliated to the Popular Party (PP) in 2005, when Pablo Casado was the president of New Generations in Madrid, in 2006, she was hired by Alfredo Prada, Minister of Justice and the Interior of the Government of the Community of Madrid, for his press department, gaining the confidence of Esperanza Aguirre.

A candidate on the PP list for the 2011 Madrid Assembly elections, she was not elected as a Member of Parliament at the time.

She entered the ninth legislature of the regional parliament on 15 July, filling the vacancy caused by Engracia Hidalgo's resignation.

Specialized in political communication, she directed the online area of the PP, taking charge of Cristina Cifuentes' digital campaign in 2015.

She renewed her act as a deputy in the 2015 elections.

During the X legislature she served as deputy spokesperson for her group, a position she abandoned along with her status as a deputy when she was appointed vice-counselor of the Presidency and Justice of the regional government.

Her partner between 2016 and 2020, was the hairdresser Jairo Alonso.

Isabel Ayuso was baptized as a Catholic but became irreligious at 9 years old after her grandfather's death.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she returned to the Catholic faith, stressing the importance of seeing people pray for her well-being.

She is a co-owner of a property management business she inherited from her father.

A member of the People's Party, and the vice-secretary of communication and spokeswoman of the party's Madrilenian branch, she was the regional candidate for president of the Community of Madrid ahead of the 2019 Madrilenian autonomous election.

On 11 January 2019, PP president Pablo Casado appointed her to lead the party in the 2019 Madrilenian regional election.

In that election on 26 May, the PP list obtained 22.23% of valid votes and 30 seats, the second most voted list after the PSOE, with 27.31% of valid votes and 37 seats.

Proposed as a candidate for the Presidency of the Community of Madrid by the President of the Assembly of Madrid, Juan Trinidad, who had previously prevented an investiture session for Ángel Gabilondo by scheduling an investiture session without a candidate in July 2019, Díaz Ayuso was sworn in as President of the regional government on August 14, with 68 votes in favour (corresponding to members of the Popular, Citizens' and Vox parliamentary groups in Madrid) and 64 against (corresponding to members of the Socialist, Más Madrid and United We Can-Madrid en Pie parliamentary groups).

In January 2020, she hired Miguel Ángel Rodríguez as chief of staff.

Her vice president, Ignacio Aguado, then explained his disagreement with the decision.

On 1 December 2020, Díaz Ayuso inaugurated the Hospital Isabel Zendal, praised by her government but heavily criticised by the opposition for its cost overruns and its use as an "advertising campaign".

After Storm Filomena, the opposition criticised her government performance, accusing it of "lack of anticipation" against the incidences caused by the storm, that seriously damaged some infrastructure and parks in the region as well as trapping many citizens of the region for a whole night on the road, with snow reaching it some points more than 50 centimeters.

Six months after her inauguration as President of the Community of Madrid, the COVID-19 pandemic reached Spain with special virulence in the Community of Madrid.

In accordance with the state of alarm decreed by the Spanish government on 14 March 2020, the government of the Community of Madrid, like the other autonomous communities, took immediate measures [required clarification] such as the closure of schools and leisure centres, shows and sports events, retired people's day centres, religious celebrations, the closure of hotels and tourist accommodation, shops considered not to be of basic need and the limitation of travel to those needed to go to work or buy food.

It also adopted protection measures in public transport, and tax reductions in the payment of Business Tax (IAE) and Property Tax (IBI) for leisure, hotel and commercial premises, travel agencies and large stores, on the condition that they maintain the jobs until the end of the year.

Presential activity was suspended in all Community Citizen Service offices, and remote work was encouraged.

In view of the saturation of hospital services, Ayuso's government used the ferial enclosure IFEMA as an emergency hospital, which disposed of 5,500 hospital beds in order to attend all patients.

IFEMA hospital was built in record time, less than 2 weeks, and the idea of the emergency hospital gave birth to the future Zendal Hospital, inaugurated a few months later.

Hotels in Madrid were also used to look after less sick patients.

Ayuso stopped appearing before the Madrid Assembly on 5 March 2020, and the chamber was closed for more than a month.

Ayuso was criticised for delivering high-quality FFP2 and FFP3 protective masks to the citizens of the Community of Madrid for free, which arguably could provoke that these kind of masks became scarce in hospitals – it later was revealed that hospitals were also well supplied with this equipment.

In May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic in Spain, her Director General of Public Health, Yolanda Fuentes, resigned, disagreeing with Ayuso's decision to request the transfer from phase 0 to phase 1 of the confinement, because it was not based on "health criteria", a position Ayuso reportedly took after a meeting with businessmen.

Ayuso opposed the request of her coalition partners, Citizens party, for the army to intervene in retirement homes.

However, the army did so, against her own criteria, finding corpses and people "in extreme situations and in poor sanitary conditions.

In October 2020, Alberto Reyero, the regional minister responsible for nursing homes announced his resignation, wishing "good luck and success in the task that she has ahead" to Díaz Ayuso.

He also mentioned that "the unity of the institutions is the most successful way to defeat the virus", criticizing the confrontation between the regional and national administrations.

However, six days later, the central government approved the State of Alarm for the Community of Madrid following unsuccessful talks and confrontation between Díaz Ayuso and PM Pedro Sánchez.

On 20 October 2020, two health officials of the Ayuso administration (the manager of Primary Attention and the manager of Hospitals) handed in their resignation.