Jaime Rincón of Independientes por Madrid isn´t your typical political animal and that´s clear from the moment you enter his restaurant Casa de Comidas Carmela in San Blas. When we arrive to sit down with him to talk politics , he´s still cleaning the glasses and dishes. Having met him at the launch of Independientes last week, he became the only political candidate I know who has done his speech and then started handing out the sandwiches.
Speaking of food, as the packed tables in Casa de Comidas Carmela slowly start to disperse we grabbed him to ask why someone with as hectic a schedule as an autonomo (self employed) restaurant owner is putting his hand up to get involved.
“Maybe because I´m crazy.” Jaime laughs. “We´re (Independientes por Madrid) based on independence and that´s what I´ve been doing my whole life. I open my own restaurant , pay my own taxes and hire my own people. But Independientes is another way to do politics and we are tired but who is going to change it? National parties or local residents?”
“If Vox bring a good proposal, I will vote yes” -Jaime Rincón
Still, can this claim to independence stack up ? The head candidate in the shape of Marta Higueras is a former Vice President of the City under the progressive Ahora Madrid, another candidate is Javier Flores whose progressive credentials involve working with Ecologistas en Acción. So we asked Jaime Rincón is this just another left wing vehicle with a different colour?
“No one can call me left wing.” Jaime reponds and the plethera of police awards proudly displayed above the counter for helping at risk youths would attest to this. “You can vote with independence, it doesn´t matter where the good proposal comes from. If Vox bring a good proposal to make life better , of course I will vote with them. Why shouldn´t I? Because they don´t share my ideology ? It doesn´t work for the city. There are many proposals that get rejected purely because they come from the wrong side. So if Vox brought a good proposal I will vote yes and if PSOE brought a good proposal, I will vote yes”.
Jaime´s frustration with the ideological purity test is evident and it comes from his work that will have had more positive transformation than the lifetime of many a politician. When I first arrived Jaime took me on a small tour and showed me his pride of Comida para Todos, an extraordinary project that has delivered over 50,000 meals from its’ start in the pandemic.
“I got the restaurant in January 2020 and by February we had to shut.” It was after doing a few odd jobs preparing to open that he was spured into action. On closing the door, he was confronted by a begging women with her two children for food. “I can´t talk about it, if I do I´m going to cry” Jaime says. But he went past the tears to set up Comida para todos that delivered small meals for free to be distrubuted around Madrid from San Blas to Orcasur. The multiple awards that adorn the walls are a vindication of his work but also his somewhat open disdain for ideological purity tests.
“You know, we had loads of volunteers from every background you could imagine” Jaime continues “and we delivered to Orcasur , a really left wing area with all the slogans, whatever. Ok, but they are like you and me and they have nothing in the fridge. You know the guy who got in his car and delivered thousands of meals to Orcasur, probably more than anyone to that area? He was from Vox.”
🤝 Una jornada para sumar, escuchar y compartir.
Todo un éxito del encuentro y la participación de quienes apuestan por una política municipal centrada en la gestión y en los vecinos.
Gracias.#independientespormadrid #municipalismo #madrid #centradosenmadrid #politicalocal pic.twitter.com/xC3wmyTrhy
— IndependientesPorMadrid (@indepenMadrid) September 20, 2026
He sums it up, “I met thousands of good people from the left hand side of the table and the right hand side. Many associations that are taking care of the neighbourhood, I don´t care about your ideology. So when Marta came to me I said ok but we have to work for all the neighbours , not only your side of the table.”
So many politicians talk about practical politics and being constructive but for Jaime the proof is in the pudding, or in his case the 50,000 plus meals delivered.
“There´s 700,000 people who didn´t vote”
But with Spanish politics heading to a national election and the rhetoric being ramped up, is there really a space for a new municipal party? Independientes need roughly about 85,000 votes (Podemos missed out on 80,000 votes and 4.89% of the Madrid City election in 2023), does Jaime really believe that Independientes por Madrid can crack the 5% threshold ?
“Look” Jaime starts bluntly “it´s not going to be easy but about 700,000 didn´t vote. 700,000 people who are tired , they don´t believe in politicians. We aren´t talking about the region or the country. No, we are talking about the problem of the city and it´s hard to understand how in Madrid there´s no party focussed on what is going on here.” Jaime is right that across Spain there is normally a decent amount of municipalist parties to at least temper their politics from becoming a national slanging match.
“Madrid is like the megaphone of national politics. Talking about the President´s brother or whatever but I spoke to a women in Villaverde who told me see is afraid to leave her house at night , due to the number of rats in the street. Who is talking about that?” An example of policy into action from Independientes por Madrid is found by Madrid esta sucio. “We have a waste contract and they chose the cheapest one. What happens? There´s rats in Villaverde. There´s 4,000 people who have uploaded photos of the state of the city, they are not crazy.”
This ‘mission creep’ of not focussing on what is happening in Madrid but using it as a platform for national political scoring points is absolute anathama to Jaime. “We need to talk about the streets, the cleaning, the security . Parties in the City hall are talking about everything but what is happening here. Why do I have to care about the brother´s President at the city elections? No. I want to see my taxes on the street.”
With the Madrid City election next year there isn´t a lot of time for Independientes por Madrid to cook up a new course for the voters but with people like Jaime Rincón involved, they at least have someone who can stand the heat in the kitchen.
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