The decision to deny, by the Community, a traditional subsidy of 100,000 euros that the Ateneo de Madrid received has caused a major cultural and political uproar in the capital with prominent echoes on social networks. The Ateneo is an iconic place for the city’s culture, although unknown to many. A few steps from the Congress of Deputies, almost wall to wall with the Church of Scientology, the country’s most prestigious humanists of the last two centuries have passed through its halls.
The reason for the withdrawal of the subsidy does not seem clear. On the one hand, the Minister of Culture, Mariano de Paco, defended that this is a change in the model of financial aid, with the aim of paying for specific projects rather than general ones. De Paco has gone so far as to say that “no one will defend him more than me”.
From now on, the Ateneo will have to sharpen its ingenuity, even more so, to qualify for these subsidies. On the other hand, there are those who point out, and this is what is causing widespread indignation, on the left and right in the networks, that the decision is based on the fact that the Regional Government considers that the institution has become a focus of criticism towards the PP Conservative sectors described the decision as “bad”.
The president of the institution, the consultant Luis Arroyo, has never hidden his political ideas and has tried to take advantage of the controversy to try to add new members. It is at this point that you can see what the Ateneo is. What institution can have among its partners Felipe González and Pedro Sánchez, José María Aznar and José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, and even Mariano Rajoy? Yes, the Ateneo de Madrid.
It was no coincidence that King Felipe VI uttered these words just a few weeks ago at the event commemorating the bicentennial: “The Ateneo de Madrid has always been at the forefront of culture and science, a refuge for free thought, a space of debate and intellectual meeting, emblem of his time”. You only need to spend an afternoon in the institution to verify that this is so. Theatre, debate, philosophy, literature, politics…
The Ateneo is a must for Madrid culture, especially in a city that sometimes starts to look more like a theme park for outsiders and inaccessible to its residents.
