The political row and the exchange of accusations over the celebration of the mascletà in Madrid continues and has no signs of stopping until next Sunday shots are fired at the Puente del Rey in Madrid Río. This Friday, the PSOE spokesperson in the Madrid City Council, Reyes Maroto, asked the mayor of València, María José Catalá (PP), to “apologize” to the people of Madrid whom she has called “catetos” for opposing the Shooting. At the same time, the Valencia City Council has approved a motion in which the “attacks of Valencianphobia” are condemned for attacking a “cultural, traditional and identity element of Valencians.”
After criticism from some parties in the Madrid City Council of the event that will cost 46,000 euros, the mayor of Valencia regretted the “catete stance” of the Madrid left. “I want to ask Almeida if he agrees, if he is going to defend the people of Madrid or is he going to justify that we people from Madrid are cathetos, those of us who refuse to let the mascletà be celebrated in this environment that, as you know, is protected because they are nesting birds and will be detrimental to the surrounding fauna,” Maroto asked.
As reported by EFE, the socialist spokesperson has asked Catalá for “consistency” because “a little less than a year ago, the PP of Valencia justified that a pyrotechnic show could not be held in the vicinity of the Oceanográfico because it could affect the birdhouses and the fauna that is in that space.”
For its part, the Local Government Board of Valencia has approved a motion to show “maximum support” for the celebration of the event and “reprove the attacks of Valencianophobia.” The spokesperson for the municipal government, Juan Carlos Caballero, has defended the City Council’s support for the sector, which is home to 28 companies and nearly 1,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Likewise, Caballero has urged the Government of Spain, as a member of UNESCO, to defend the mascletà “as the intangible cultural heritage of Humanity.”
