Lockdowns 'are an abuse of power' – but the Left has 'paternalistic' obsession with them

Madrid's rising star leader on Friday attacked "paternalistic" Left-wing governments for confining people to their homes as she warned that any return to a Covid lockdown would be remembered as a "historical error".

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of Madrid's regional authority, defied Spain's socialist government to free her city from a lockdown she believed was doing more harm than good.

Ms Ayuso was able to use devolved powers to apply the loosest set of restrictions to business and leisure in Spain before abandoning all limits last month.

"The economy is also a health question," said Ms Ayuso in her imposing offices in the centre of Madrid.

"Playing off health and economy against each other is a lie, because what happens to the people who are ruined? What about their health? And the people who commit suicide or suffer depression?"

Europe is in the grip of a new Covid wave, with Austria and Slovakia going back into lockdown and others mulling tougher rules.

"When the historians look back they will see that all the lockdowns after the first were a historical error," Ms Aysuo told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview.

"What is happening is an abuse of power, and lockdowns are a failure – even in health terms. Many governments around the world go straight for lockdowns without trying all the alternatives, whether it is because they lack creativity or courage."

The 43-year-old was catapulted to star status after reopening the Spanish capital for business. "Ayusomania" transformed her into a political phenomenon, as well as a hate figure for the Left, and she is tipped to one day be Spain's first female prime minister.

On the wall of her headquarters, a memorial plaque to the victims of Covid is next to one remembering those killed in terror attacks in 2004. Outside, in Puerta del Sol, long queues of Spaniards wait to buy lottery tickets or to enter the many shops advertising Black Friday sales. Tourists from the US and Europe are back visiting "Open Madrid".

The streets bustle in a capital famous for its 24-hour lifestyle, with cafes and restaurants now doing a roaring trade into the small hours of the morning. Things were very different in the dark early days of the pandemic, when Spain instituted one of Europe's strictest lockdowns.

"We have shown that lockdowns are not the answer. We have gone on the attack against the virus and not against businesses," said Ms Ayuso, who added that people needed to take "individual responsibility" to fight the pandemic.

She said she had weathered "unprecedented pressure" after going against lockdown. Her stance brought her into conflict with some senior figures in her Right-wing Popular Party (PP) as well as the ruling socialist coalition, for whom she reserves trademark scorn.

"Paternalistic Left-wing governments think that citizens are better off locked-up in their homes and living off subsidies," she said. "We have shown in Madrid that you can fight the virus without destroying people's personal hopes and dreams."

Her fans call her "Saint Isabel" and she is idolised by restaurant owners, one of whom has named his venue "Freedom Cafe", while another sells a dish inspired by her politics. The recipe has a lot of eggs, in honour of the "huevos" she showed in facing down Pedro Sanchez's coalition government.

Ms Ayuso drove home the advantage gained in reopening the economy early to slash regional business taxes to zero and attract investment from all over Spain to the capital. Almost one in four businesses created in the country this year has started in Madrid, with Ms Ayuso saying that she is channelling a "cultural, political and economic renaissance" in the city.

"If Madrid is not free, it is no longer Madrid. All I have done is let Madrid be Madrid," she said. "There is a Madrid way of life, and it's about being out on the street and following your dream."

Madrid only became Spain's richest region three years ago as it benefited from instability in Catalonia. That primacy has been entrenched by Ms Ayuso's free-market policies, which she concedes are radical but insists are not uncaring.

She accepts the first lockdown, in March last year, was the right thing to do "because we didn't know what we were dealing with". But now her government has vowed to "test, test, test" to tackle all future upticks, as well as monitoring Covid incidence levels through an early-warning system based on analysing waste water.

Madrid has suffered badly, with more than 6,000 of its 16,000 death toll made up of elderly care home residents during the first wave.

Ms Ayuso's early response included an ill thought-out plan to use private ambulances to service care homes, which led to accusations of favouritism because the owner of the business was a family member of a senior PP politician. She recently used her majority to cut short an investigation into the disaster by Madrid's regional parliament.

Despite those difficult days, she said she never had doubts that her decision to end lockdown was the right one.

"I received an unprecedented level of pressure, both politically and in terms of the media. I was insulted and called a murderer," she said. "But time has shown I was right because we were clear about what we were doing. Since the regions took back control of the health situation, infections in Madrid have tailed off.

"At first in the UK, action was taken late after a period in which decisions were not taken. Then it seemed to go the other way and there was a change of approach. We didn't waver from our path."

As things stand, the strategy is working. Madrid's current seven-day cumulative infection rate stands at 67 per 100,000 inhabitants compared to a national average of 92.

Ms Ayuso moved fast to press home her advantage and her soaring popularity, angering some in her party leadership by calling a snap regional election in May against their wishes.

The move led Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the hard-Left Podemos party, to leave his post as a Cabinet minister and stand against her in the capital. Her victory was so crushing that Mr Iglesias, a Jeremy Corbyn-style icon of the Spanish Left, quit politics. In her victory speech, she declared that Madrid had chosen "liberty".

Ms Ayuso's triumph was the crowning point in a meteoric rise that has seen her become one of the most famous faces of a new generation of Spanish Right-wing politicians. Whispers that she could be preparing a tilt at the fragile, stitched-together coalition of Left-wing parties that rules Spain are growing.

"I am the leader of a government that Spain is missing out on, and it's the complete opposite of Pedro Sánchez's administration," Ms Ayuso said, adding that Spain will "one day" will have a woman prime minister.

She doesn't shrink from a fight, and her tendency to mock her opponents and their politics have seen critics calling her "a Trumpista". But she is unrepentant, saying Spain is in the middle of a culture war against cancel culture and political correctness.

"They are imposing one set of people and values over another. Of course we have to respect each other, but a series of debates have been raised to tell us how we have to think. It's completely totalitarian," she said.

Ms Ayuso has faced accusations of pandering to the hard-Right Vox party, which supports her government in the Madrid region but said: "People from Left and Right feel represented by me, but it is also true that a lot of voters from my party now support Vox, so I won't be the one to insult them."

Her supporters are unconcerned – and Madrid has become, according to Ms Ayuso, a beacon of liberty. She said: "Freedom is the most valuable thing we have, and the thing that makes life not worth living if you lose it."