José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid, has been a father for just a week. The first mayor of Madrid has started a paternity leave of six weeks, in which his chair in the Palacio de Cibeles will not be empty. It will be occupied by Inmaculada Sanz, first deputy mayor and also someone who already knows what it is to be at the head of the City Council alone. She did it in 2023, when Almeida went on his honeymoon.
Now he repeats, but this time without the sea in between. “Before any complication, the mayor is in Madrid”, said Sanz in an interview granted to Gran Madrid, the local vertical of El Mundo, where he confirms that it is not a political relay, but rather “a natural relay“.
Who is Inmaculada Sanz?
In the meantime, and until at least the end of August, it will be Sanz who will be in charge of the day-to-day municipal affairs. Born in Zamora in 1977, with a degree in ADE from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Sanz was president of the PP of Tetuán, head of the Affiliations Committee of the PP of Madrid and, between 2008 and 2015, Director General of Relations with the Assembly of Madrid. In Cibeles, she has been working side by side with Almeida for more than 14 years.
She is also delegate of the Security and Emergencies Area, spokesperson of the City Council, secretary of the Governing Board and member of several commissions. Her gross salary in 2024 amounts to 108,363.60 euros per year, and she has exclusive dedication. In the corridors of the Consistory they know her well: she is a key player in internal negotiations, especially in the preparation of budgets and ordinances.
Why does Inma Sanz occupy this circumstantial role?
That’s right: her promotion to the command does not occur because she is deputy mayor, but because she is the first deputy mayor. This is established in the Organic Regulations of the Government and Administration of the Madrid City Council (articles 12 and 34), as well as in the Local Administration Law of the Community of Madrid. He will be accompanied by the second deputy mayor and delegate of Urbanism, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, and the third deputy mayor and delegate of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Marta Rivera de la Cruz.
Sanz will have to face a busy summer in which major city projects, such as the burying of the A-5, the covering of Ventas or the redesign of the Castellana, will continue to move forward. He will also have to face controversial and hot topics of Madrid’s current affairs, such as the closure of parks during heat waves or the City Council’s investment in the installation of awnings in Puerta del Sol.
Martínez-Almeida’s paternity
Almeida’s new paternity stage began last week with the birth of his son Lucas, fruit of his relationship with Teresa Urquijo, granddaughter of Teresa de Borbón-Dos Sicilias. The baby was born at the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora del Rosario, in the Salamanca neighborhood, and bears the name of his maternal grandfather, Lucas Urquijo Fernández de Araoz, an executive of companies such as El Corte Inglés and a member of a family with a noble tradition.