Madrid celebrates this Wednesday the day of its patron saint, San Isidro, with the controversy over the absence of Más Madrid from the institutional medal ceremony, a recognition that they consider “whitewashes” Israel by decorating the Jewish community of the capital. while the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has criticized that the head of the opposition, Rita Maestre, takes “the day off” on the most important day for the city.
The events will begin at 9 a.m. from the Plaza de Colón, where the raising of the national flag will take place in the Gardens of Discovery, which will be followed by the traditional Mass in the Collegiate Church of San Isidro.
The Royal Collegiate Church of San Isidro will host the liturgical events organized in its honor by the Royal, Very Illustrious and Primitive Congregation of San Isidro. You can access the sepulchral chamber where the incorrupt body of the city’s patron saint and the relics of his wife, Santa María de la Cabeza, rest. The solemn Mass in honor of the saint will take place at 10 a.m. and will be presided over by Cardinal José Cobo, archbishop of Madrid, and broadcast by Telemadrid. This same Wednesday, at 7 p.m., the images of San Isidro and Santa María de la Cabeza will be taken out in procession.
At noon the delivery of this year’s honorary distinctions will begin, which will be followed by the traditional visit to the hermitage of San Isidro and the Garden of the Fountain, where the blessing of water by the cardinal will also take place.
At 12 noon, José Luis Martínez-Almeida will preside over the award ceremony of the Medals of Honor and of Madrid, in addition to the distinction of Adopted Son of Madrid to the writer Luis Mateo Díaz, recent Cervantes Prize winner and retired official of the Madrid City Council with occasion of the festival of San Isidro. It will be in the Crystal Gallery of the Cibeles Palace.
Around 700 guests are expected to attend the event, including family and friends of the winners, members of the municipal government, representatives of municipal groups and the Central Government, the Government delegate in the Community of Madrid, ambassadors, businessmen, unions and media, have reported from the Government of the capital.
In addition, chulapas and chulapos will hand out red and white carnations to the guests upon arrival and the Madrid Municipal Symphonic Band will accompany the singer Diana Navarro in the performance of ‘La Violetera’, enlivening the event.
All this in the midst of the controversy over the absence of Más Madrid from the institutional act, considering that it “whitewashes” Israel. The PSOE spokesperson in the City Council, Reyes Maroto, will attend the Medal presentation, and has asked to “leave the confrontation” over San Isidro and celebrate “a day of celebration.”
The Vox Municipal Group has also confirmed its attendance, although the Vox spokesperson in the Madrid City Council, Javier Ortega Smith, has accused the PP of José Luis Martínez-Almeida of wanting to take away the prominence of his group and has stressed that the recognition in form The medal goes to “Israel and the victims of Hamas.”
In any case, Más Madrid has stated that they will celebrate San Isidro since they will go to the meadow and the rest of the institutional events, the exception being the presentation of medals after the mayor has “tried to turn everyone’s festivities” into something else. to cheer on a government that has dozens of deaths behind it.”
The Madrid City Council will award its 2024 Medals of Honor to the capital’s Jewish community, the Rayo Vallecano football club and the historian Carmen Iglesias this Wednesday.
In addition, among those chosen for the 14 Medals of the City of Madrid, the music group Hombres G, the San Ginés chocolate shop and the three State Security Forces and Corps that operate in the capital stand out: National Police, Civil Guard and Police Municipal.
Specifically, the 14 Madrid Medals will be awarded to Servimedia, National Police, Municipal Police, Civil Guard, ADELA, Fundación del Toro de Lidia, Carmen Añón, ACYRE, Cristina Oria, Hombres G, Telefónica, Juana Aizpuru, Chocolatería San Ginés and Jesús ‘Suso’ Garzón Heydt, posthumously.
The vice mayor of Madrid, Inma Sanz, highlighted the “dynamism, integrative desire and social work” carried out by the Jewish community of Madrid, since its foundation in 1917, as well as its important presence in the city to make it “better and more welcoming.”
Regarding the Rayo Vallecano club, he alluded to the proximity of its centenary, after being founded on May 29, 1924, and has praised “its sporting achievements, its values ??and its peculiar fusion with the two Vallecano districts of the capital.”
Also, he explained that the historian María del Carmen Iglesias is the official chronicler of the Villa, historian, professor and Spanish academic, specialist in modern history of Europe and Spain. Of her, he highlighted her “teaching, dissemination and research work,” as well as her promotion of democratic values.
Almeida makes his debut this year as mayor with an absolute majority in a San Isidro where the Palestinian cause flies over the Cibeles Palace. And he will do it in the Pradera, where spokespersons for municipal groups and councilors will parade on the patron’s big day, surrounded by claves, parpusas, chotis and pasodobles.
