Isabel Díaz Ayuso has risen out of nowhere to political stardom. In Madrid, the regional president is on the verge of her next triumph, a success story that could pull Spanish conservatives to the right.
At some point, long after the mass has been read, the priest has had enough. He hisses into the microphone, loud and sustained: "Sh-sh! "Sh-sh! Sh-sh!" A crowd has formed in front of the altar in his church in the center of Madrid. Retirees, businesspeople, nuns and children are all elbowing each other out of the way, fighting for a selfie, as they try to get closer to the woman they adore.