The Pope’s visit to the capital ―and especially the preparations, already underway― is and will be a source of friction between Almeida’s team and the opposition. On one hand, the mobility plan, announced last week and which will cause progressive and increasingly severe cuts on the Castellana-Recoletos axis. It is “improvised,” says the PSOE, and “was not well presented,” says Más Madrid. On the other hand, the cultural clash ―the protagonist of this Tuesday’s city council meeting― over the institutional declaration: how is the Madrid City Council going to welcome Leo XIV to the city? As head of state? As religious leader? Both?
For now, in no way, because the text, which is usually agreed upon among political groups, has not been approved. Almeida’s PP rejected the PSOE’s proposal on Monday, the only one at that time and presented before the Board of Spokespersons last week, because it does not reflect the spiritual nature of the visit, which the Government will declare an “event of special public interest.”
The socialist group’s text, sent to the media on Monday morning, refers to the social, humanist, and diverse image of the pontiff and praises his figure as head of state of the Vatican City. It had already been approved by Más Madrid, Vox, and, according to the PSOE, by the region’s archbishopric. Shortly after Maroto’s team’s proposal, the PP sent theirs: “PROPUESTA ALTERNATIVA A DECLARACIÓN INSTITUCIÓN PAPALEÓN [sic] XIV.pdf”.
The text is very similar but differs in the core of the welcome. There are no references to social justice or humanism, but there is to the “right to life,” also to the role as head of state. Additionally, and this is part of the confrontation, to the “Christian roots” to which, the PP writes, the “Madrid people” are “deeply linked.” The Popular Party considers that the PSOE’s proposal does not capture the religious dimension of the visit. “His Holiness is also the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church and a moral and religious reference for millions of people, a dimension that we understand must be adequately reflected in an institutional declaration of the Madrid City Council,” they stated on Monday. They also criticize the PSOE for presenting it unilaterally and ask Maroto to say who in the archbishopric, led by José Cobo, approved their declaration.
“In front of all Madrilenians, I will say what happened,” Almeida began in the plenary. According to the mayor, the PSOE registered the institutional declaration at 13:35 on Friday, and the PP sent the alternative, with the religious mention, at 9:35 on Monday. “Who in the archbishopric [approved it]? They have refused. Why don’t you want to say it? Do you know why? As the capo di tutti capi, the mafia boss [referring to Pedro Sánchez], would say, what a made-up story you’ve come up with, Mrs. Maroto,” Almeida retorted.
The PSOE reiterated, in a statement sent to the media while the plenary was taking place, that it has the archbishopric’s approval and accuses Almeida of “sectarianism.” The declaration “steers clear of any partisan confrontation or with other religious confessions,” they defend and insist that an institutional declaration should focus precisely on the institutional character. “Today we should have started the plenary with a declaration for the Pope. Because of their excuses and sectarianism, they are incapable of reaching agreements, they have only made a fool of themselves, they have tried to generate controversy,” Marto criticized in her first intervention.
Almeida responded categorically with the PP’s position:
—This is an apostolic journey of the Holy Father to Spain, it’s not that difficult.
The archbishopric told this newspaper that they will not make statements regarding the controversy because it belongs to the political sphere.
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Zapatero, protagonist in every intervention
It didn’t matter who asked the question or what it was about, the mayor had only one answer: Zapatero. Mentions of the former socialist president, whose indictment in the Plus Ultra case has shocked Pedro Sánchez’s government, the PSOE, and part of the Spanish left, monopolized the attacks in the plenary. After a Vox intervention about nursery schools, Almeida’s solution is “to end the most corrupt government in history.” To Más Madrid’s about the scalextric of Puente de Vallecas: “There is Zapatero and his cronies […], the corruption enablers.” But the most direct darts, full of irony and reproach, were again against the socialist leader. “You know you are next,” he threw at her, after accusing her of lying in the investigation commission of the Koldo case in the Senate over her messages with the commissioner Víctor de Aldama during her time as minister.
To Maroto’s first intervention, in which she criticized the new plenary regulations that prohibit banners, symbols, applause, or shouts, Almeida was brief in his response:
―Your question requires a relevant analysis [because of the company of Zapatero’s friend, Julio Martínez].
And he continued with references to the former head of government: “What is the difference between the t-shirts they display in public [referring to the yellow ones of the nursery educators, on strike for 50 days] and the jewels they keep in safes?”
The nursery educators were expelled from the April plenary, as had already happened with members of the Tenants’ Union in March. After these expulsions, the chair of the board, Borja Fanjul, issued a resolution that does not change the current regulations but specifies and expands their application: no leaflets, applause, exclamations, shouts, banners, or any type of symbol. If carried or shown, those who bear them must leave the chamber. This was the first session with the approved prohibitions and, the opposition criticizes, with less public presence. Más Madrid and PSOE denounce that the seats have been reduced from 100 to 20.
Some of those empty seats in the public gallery were again occupied by the nursery educators. Also, several residents of Montercarmelo, celebrating because last week a judge ruled in their favor and ordered the immediate halt of the cleaning station works. Before the plenary began, they handed a text to each councilor entering Cibeles, including the president of the Fuencarral-El Pardo district, José Antonio Martínez Páramo. It is an open letter to the mayor, the fourth in three years of protests, in which they ask for his resignation and accuse the City Council of “deceiving them” and “disregarding them.”
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