gerardvivancos

Not a counter argument but just bringing the facts. There's an article[1] containing a video with the actual words from her (in Spanish of course).

"I don't like traffic jams. Nobody does. Maybe I'm weird but I don't like traffic jams. I don't like a jammed world.

But there's something that Madrid has and that few cities in the world have, which is nightlife. I've never met a city like Madrid where you can go out at 3AM and see that much life on the streets. And that life comes with traffic jams. And that's not the kind of jam that depletes your energy as opposed to the one you find yourself in when going to work and you're late to a meeting or your child is going to miss their first school hour. The one that you find yourself in when going out to dinner on weekends is not the one you hate the most.

Do I like jams? Obviously not, but they're part of Madrid's life. They were part of Madrid's life.

If Podemos [the ones who implemented the LEZ] keeps Madrid's council, there won't be jams at night but at day there will everywhere.

They're not a matter of enjoyment, but they're an identity sign of our city. They mean that the streets are alive, always.

Moreover, for women, at least for me, that I've gone out and enjoyed my city with passion, going out to have dinner and a drink and see that amount of life makes me very proud of my city.

And I believe jams are to be eradicated, of course, but that is not done by preventing neighbours' and commerces' mobility. Moreover this is being managed very sloppily."

My opinion starts here, and it is that she's mixing a lot of stuff (nightlife with shops that open only in the morning and afternoon, jams not happening inside the LEZ with ones happening outside of it, or implying that without nightly jams there's no people going out) in order to criticise the implementation of the LEZ because they defend freedom of using your car as you wish. And that brings her to having to criticise even the good aspects of it (no jams in the LEZ) with an appeal to emotions, which ends up in having to say she misses traffic jams.

Actually, she never says that previous setup was better because of anything outside that she felt the city was more crowded at night.

[1]: https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/madrid/2019-04-24/isab...

I think my non-native English prevents me from fully understanding your question, but I'd say in general terms what is described in the article is what happened:

- Party A takes the council 4 years ago

- Party A implements the low emissions zone

- Party B goes into elections campaign championing a reverse of the LEZ. The quote about they saying pollution and jams are part of the city's identity is true.

- Party B does not win the election but, because of how the system works, they could take the council by joining forces with other parties (who were also against the LEZ)

- If last point indeed happens, then they will revert the LZE

Actually, it is very possible that the LZE cannot be reverted because of EU's restrictions and fines for pollution quotas. Some media that are sided to Party B and were very critical of Party A and the LZE are now changing headlines to blame EU for the LZE, in what looks like a damage control operation now that they realise the possibility of their promise being not able to be fulfilled.

Source: I live somewhere some consider is Spain and some not.