Madrid mayoral debate heats up

ON Tuesday night, candidates for the Madrid mayoral election took to the screens of Telemadrid for a second time to discuss issues such as corruption, taxes and local services. The face-off became very heated between two candidates in particular, PP hopeful Esperanza Aguirre and Manuela Carmena, Ahora Madrid candidate.
Aguirre took aim at Carmena, citing: “You hug a lot of people a lot, you’re very kind, but we haven’t seen your programme.” Aguirre accused her rival of lacking any real programme and indirectly referred to the party’s links to authoritarian regimes stemming from Latin America.
Carmena retaliated, saying: “Our democracy is sick; citizens are estranged from politicians because of corruption, which developed under your government as it turns out.”
“You sought out aides who played key roles in the structures of corruption,” she continued, “and they were already involved in it when you picked them out. I don’t understand why you would want to keep governing after all the harm you’ve done. […] It was your government, your team, you are responsible. Really, I’m telling you not to continue, you’ve already done a lot of harm, you must not go on.”
Aguirre suggested the judge had sympathies with Basque terrorist group ETA, given that she freed a convicted member, who “the very next day, stated that he did not regret his attacks.”
Carmena defended herself by claiming that, “everyone knows that I have been fighting my whole life for democracy and freedom.”