The former deputy mayor of Madrid with Manuela Carmena, Marta Higueras, announces her return to the political forefront leading 'Independientes por Madrid', a municipal candidacy for the 2027 elections.
The former deputy mayor of Madrid, Marta Higueras, has announced her return to municipal politics for the 2027 elections at the helm of a new formation, Independientes por Madrid. The lawyer and former number two to Manuela Carmena seeks to break the dynamic of blocs that, according to her, has paralysed the City Council of the capital.
In an interview, Higueras explained that her decision stems from the frustration she has detected in all neighbourhoods of Madrid. "People are fed up with that spectacle," says the former deputy mayor, referring to the constant confrontation between the government of José Luis Martínez-Almeida and an opposition that, in her opinion, has not been up to the task.
An open project for citizens
Independientes por Madrid presents itself as an "open project," as Higueras has detailed. The formation will not ask its members whom they voted for previously and has already set up the website independientespormadrid.org so that residents can submit proposals and help build the electoral programme.
The candidacy includes people from public management, community networks, business, commerce, academia, and civil society, as well as citizens without prior party affiliation. "This party is formed by anyone who wants to contribute, not by those who fit into a faction," emphasises Higueras.
Madrid can be managed better by measuring politics by results and not by headlines
Criticism of Almeida's management and the opposition
Higueras has been critical of the management of the current mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. "In these years, the sense of proximity politics that attends to all neighbourhoods equally has been lost," she asserts. The former deputy mayor points to housing, cleanliness, mobility, neighbourhood commerce, and security as the main problems.
But she has also taken aim at the opposition, which she accuses of being "more focused on headline confrontation than on providing solutions." "Between a government that does not resolve and an opposition that does not build, the one who always loses is the neighbour," she concludes.
For Higueras, the challenge for Independientes por Madrid is not to recreate the past of Carmena's era, but to "demonstrate that Madrid can be managed better by measuring politics by results and not by headlines."
Red lines for agreements: measures, not acronyms
When asked about possible alliances after the elections, Higueras has been blunt: "We do not make agreements with acronyms, we make agreements with measures." The leader of Independientes por Madrid has set as a starting condition transparency, clear accounts, and clean contracts.
"We will not sit down with anyone who does not accept the real problems of Madrid —housing, neighbourhoods, services— as a priority, nor with anyone who intends to turn the City Council into a trench of national politics," she warns. Agreements will be reached "on concrete proposals for the city, never in exchange for a blank cheque or a distribution of seats."
Higueras is confident that her project can surpass traditional blocs and build majorities around what unites the city. "Overcoming the blocs does not mean renouncing majorities; it means building them around what unites the city, not what divides it," she concludes.
Facing the residents of Madrid, Higueras' candidacy offers an alternative to those who feel orphaned of municipal representation. The deadline for the 2027 elections is still far off, but the former deputy mayor has already begun mobilising her team and gathering proposals through her website.
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