Madrid (EFE).- Former senator Ruth Porta, deputy and historic PSOE councilor from Madrid who was Rafael Simancas’s right-hand man in the legislature after which the ‘Tamayazo’ prevented the Socialist government in the Community of Madrid, has died 66 years old, as his party colleagues have lamented today.
The official account of the PSOE of the Retiro district, a group that he presided over, reported this Sunday the death of Porta, who was remembered on Twitter by colleagues such as Eduardo Madina, Elena Valenciano, Pilar Sánchez Acera, José Cepeda or Rafael Simancas.
“How much pain in your departure, Ruth. And how much gratitude for so much shared full life. My friend, companion”, the latter has written on social networks about Ruth Porta, who joined the PSOE in 1977.
Porta was appointed deputy spokesperson for the socialist group in the Madrid Assembly after the May 25, 2003 elections, in which she was ranked number four in the candidacy headed by Simancas.
In these elections, the PP obtained 55 deputies compared to the 56 who obtained the sum of PSOE (47) and IU (9). These two parties began negotiations for a possible coalition government, however, the voluntary desertion of two elected socialist deputies (Eduardo Tamayo and Maite Sáez) during the constitutive session, on June 10, of the Madrid Assembly led to an institutional crisis. without precedents.
The reason given by the two defectors was the “pact” between PSOE and IU in the regional government and Simancas’ breach of an alleged agreement with a minority socialist current led by José Luis Balbás.
Tamayo and his “confrontation” with Ruth Porta
Balbás attributed the actions of the defector Tamayo to his “confrontation” with Ruth Porta over the repeated complaints made by her husband, Enrique Benedicto Mamblona, against Tamayo before the PSOE Ethics Commission, and for alleged real estate deals.
Before making the leap to the Assembly, Porta had been a socialist mayor in the Madrid City Council (1995-2003), spokesman for his Municipal Group in the Finance and Economy Commission, spokesman in the Special Accounts Commission and member of the Commission PSM Regional Executive.
Since 2003 she was a deputy in the Madrid Assembly and in 2007 she was appointed senator representing the Community of Madrid and in 2008 general secretary of the socialist group in the Senate.
Ruth Porta left the institutional activity in 2015, assuring that the worst frustration was that those responsible for the ‘Tamayazo’ had not been convicted. After the ‘Tamayazo’, the popular Esperanza Aguirre was elected president of the Community of Madrid.
She herself recalled the figure of the socialist today: “It is with deep sadness that I learned the news of the death of Ruth Porta. We were adversaries in tough times, but we always respect each other”, said the former Madrid president.
Born in Palma de Mallorca on April 22, 1957, she graduated in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1979 and was an auditor of Local Administration.
Daughter of the Mallorcan cardiologist, Ramón Porta, a militant republican, and Ruth Cantoni, an Argentine of Italian origin who was Perón’s assistant. Both died, within two months of each other, in 1995, the year Ruth Porta first held public office.
The entry Dies the historical of the Madrid PSOE Ruth Porta at the age of 66 was first published in EFE Noticias.