Madrid mayor is unknown vintage

On Tuesday Ana Botella, number two on the slate of the center-right Popular Party (PP) in the last municipal elections, became the first woman to occupy the mayoralty of Madrid. In addition to this, she is also the wife of the former Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar.

This latter fact would not in itself be worthy of note, had she not herself drawn attention to it in her inaugural speech, by mentioning her husband as an inspirational example - the "personal and political guiding light," she said, of all her public activity. The convergence of these two circumstances explains why her inauguration was one of the best attended in recent memory, with a copious profusion of ex-mayors, ministers in the new government, and representatives of diverse sectors of the PP.

There is certainly no room for doubt about the legality and legitimacy of Ana Botella's accession to the mayoralty of Madrid, after Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón's appointment as justice minister. But this is no reason not to point out that the voters of Madrid elected her not to the post of mayor, but only to that of councilor.

She is, then, an unexpected mayor, who comes to the mayoralty by means of a circumstance which, though duly provided for in the law, nevertheless obliges her to make an additional effort to justify her presence in the post, in the eyes of her voters and in those of Madrileños in general.

Since Ruiz-Gallardón's election to the mayoralty in 2003, Ana Botella has served him as a shield against the more hard-right sectors of the PP who bore a spiteful grudge against him, and still do, on account of the new justice minister's supposed leanings toward, or at least concessions to, the left.

Botella, the radical-right councilor who has now been raised to the mayor's office, and who is perhaps best remembered for her televised remark about "adding pears to apples" in connection with the issue of homosexual marriage, has now shouldered the burden of representing all the citizens of Madrid, which implies observing a rule of tolerance and respect for all sorts of sensibilities and lifestyles.

Powerless on pollution

She inherits the control of the most indebted City Hall in Spain, to which are added the problems typical of any large city. Having been the councilor responsible for the environment department, she knows a good deal about one of them: Madrid's unusual degree of air pollution. But she was unable to do anything about it, perhaps because she professes the same creed as her husband with regard to global warming: negationism and apparent indifference.

On the other hand, it is to be hoped that she will at least be able to resolve the problems affecting capital dwellers deriving from the constant spats of envy and petty squabbles between the Madrid regional premier, Esperanza Aguirre, and her predecessor as mayor.