Not only does he not regret it, but he reaffirms himself about it. Isabel Díaz Ayuso's chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, has once again accused the press of “harassing” and “trying to access” the “president's home” in “very bad ways.” “There were two hooded journalists,” Rodríguez said in statements to laSextathus repeating the hoax that was already spread on Tuesday night and that was reproduced by several media outlets.
Ayuso's right-hand man refuses to apologize or resign, and also rejects that these accusations and hoaxes represent an attack on the press. “I have never lied or threatened any journalist or spread any hoax. Therefore, I am not going to resign nor has Ayuso requested my dismissal. “I continue to have the confidence of the president and I will continue to be her chief of staff, no matter how much the opposition asks for my immediate dismissal,” Rodríguez stated, according to laSexta. “How are we going to harass the press if we always let El País, laSexta, elDiario, infoLibre ask questions at press conferences?” the Madrid president's chief of staff has justified.
Rodríguez fabricated the hoax about the assault on Ayuso's home after threatening a journalist from elDiario.es with “shredding” the media until it was closed, according to what he told her on WhatsApp. Ayuso's chief of staff framed this threat in a relationship of “trust”, something that Esther Palomera – the journalist who received these messages – denied and something that Rodríguez reiterated this Thursday: “That 'we are going to crush you' was a trust colloquial, as I have with other journalists.”
Rodríguez's attacks, endorsed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso herself and, now, by the national leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, come as a result of elDiario.es revealing the tax fraud of Ayuso's boyfriend, Alberto González Amador, and uncovering a series of information that affects the president, among them, that Ayuso and her partner live in two apartments – 360 square meters in total – paid for after González's hit.
elDiario.es has categorically denied the assault on Ayuso's home by two “hooded editors”, and press associations, among others, in addition to the majority of political parties, have condemned these attacks on press freedom. Today, however, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez insists on the hoax: “Those journalists who were hanging around Ayuso's home did ugly things, like harassing neighbors and shopkeepers in the area”; “There were two hooded journalists who tried to access the president's home through the portal in very bad ways.” […]”They had to stop them there and the Police assigned to Ayuso's security took their information.” Rodríguez does not offer dates or identify the journalists or give more information on this occasion.
This Wednesday, the director of elDiario.es, Ignacio Escolar, already denied this false information: “Our colleague, the journalist who on Monday, March 11, confirmed that the couple lives in two apartments, did not harass any neighbors, nor was he hooded, He did not even enter the doorway – much less into the house – and he did not use any force or violence. He asked neighbors in the neighborhood and also a resident who was entering the building. Later, while he was on a park bench near the house, he was identified by the counter-surveillance service of the president of Madrid, agents of the National Police. Interior sources confirm that it was a routine identification of a person who was simply a journalist 'in an absolutely normal situation, doing his job.'”
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At elDiario.es we are aware that publishing news like this is not easy, that there may be consequences. At least we know what we're dealing with this time. They have made it clear to us and in writing: “We are going to crush you, you are going to have to close.” The threats from Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, the right-hand man of the president of Madrid, are not just a warm-up. It is not even the first time that he has resorted to pressure like this to prevent information from being published.
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