The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, said on Tuesday that he did not understand the “campaign” and the “cataract of insults” poured out on him for his statements about Almudena Grandes, who died on November 27 at the age of 61 for cancer and of which he said does not deserve to be named the city’s favorite daughter. Far from rectifying his words, as requested by the opposition, Almeida has maintained them and has assured that he has “never” denigrated or disqualified her.
Almeida received a barrage of criticism on Monday for saying in an interview that the writer does not deserve to be a favorite daughter, a point included in the budget agreement that she signed with the Mixed Group (Recover Madrid). These criticisms were joined by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who said that “it was a privilege to live with her in a space of freedom and fraternity such as Madrid”, and this Tuesday the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, who has declared that “the best Madrid, the most committed, the most supportive, the most cultured, the most advanced, is represented more by Almudena Grandes than that archaic couple represented by PP and Vox.”
After a minute of silence for the murder of a minor in Lavapiés, Almeida said that “it is difficult” to understand “that campaign” against him, claiming that he disqualifies and insults Grandes when he voted in favor of giving him a street (but against the title of favorite daughter). “You will not have heard from me a single disqualification of Almudena Grandes, not a single one, I have limited the debate solely and exclusively to whether or not that distinction should be granted,” the councilor has defended.
On the tweet published by the poet and widower of Grandes, Luis García Montero, in which described as petty the words of Almeida, the mayor has assured that he understands that he wrote it and has transferred his “total and absolute respect” to the “position” that he maintains. He has also argued that when speaking of a concession such as that of a favorite daughter, “taking into account the honor it entails”, it is legitimate, necessary and important that a position can be determined without having to receive “a cataract of insults and disqualifications ”that he, has highlighted, has had to receive.
He has assured that his statements are consistent with what he demonstrated with his vote and has stressed that it was not the Government team that put this point on the table in the negotiation of the budgets. It was the Mixed Group, made up of three ediles split from Más Madrid, which included in the budget agreement to grant recognition to the author. He has insisted that the Government team made a “weighting” about the “need” that Madrid had to have the budgets and the Mixed Group established that point as a “non-negotiable” condition. He also recalled that he never denied the legitimacy of the PSOE position to vote against the award of the city’s Gold Medal to Andrés Trapiello, whom the PSOE called “revisionist.”
“Whether or not she is worthy of an honorary distinction may be questioned, but her worth as a writer is not in doubt. I also recommend that Almudena Grandes be read and given as a gift on these dates. The controversy with a recently deceased person is not to anyone’s liking and I think we should stop arguing around his figure ”, said the delegate for Culture of the Madrid City Council, Andrea Levy.
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For her part, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports of Madrid, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, has asked that the controversy surrounding the writer be stopped “out of respect for the memory of a person who is no longer there” and has praised its trajectory. “What I think is that we have to leave this story now. I have great respect for the author and her family. I think these things hurt and do not help ”, he has expressed, while he has expressed his admiration for a singular author“ without whom the Spanish literature of the last 40 years cannot be understood ”, in addition to being from Madrid.
The mayor of Getafe, Sara Hernández (PSOE), has also added to the criticism, who has assured that she is “ashamed” of the “contempt” of Grandes by Almeida. In his opinion, “approving budgets is important for cities, but never an excuse to trample on anyone’s memory.”
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