LETTER FROM MADRID
Behind the closed gates of the Duque del Infantado park, children look on with annoyed expression as their castle-slide is turned over on the ground and their attractions are dismantled by technicians from the Manzanares el Real town hall. In these first days of September, some of them cry, bang on the gate, climb on the bars. In vain.
Almudena de Arteaga and the Alcázar, XXmy The Duchess of Infantado, 57, reclaimed the gardens that her grandfather had given to the municipality in 1975, the year of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, in a desire to win the sympathy of the locals. For fifty years, the children of this village of some nine thousand inhabitants, located in the mountains, 50 kilometres north of Madrid, played and grew up there. “It is a park of incredible social and environmental value for the families of Manzanares, the only one in the city centre that offers shade, under large century-old trees, and creates social ties and diversity,” laments Maria Monclin, mother of a 5-year-old child.
Ten years have passed since the House of Infantado, one of the largest families of the Spanish nobility, whose origins date back to the 15th centurymy In the 19th century, she demanded that the park be returned to her. The council tried to buy it back, but could not agree on a price with Almudena de Arteaga, also a successful writer of historical novels. The Land Registry services estimate the value of the land at 140,000 euros, on which no building can be done. The duchess demanded 2.5 million euros. The council initiated expropriation proceedings, the duchess responded by initiating eviction proceedings. In June she won.
“Property inherited from a feudal system”
“If I had agreed to pay what the owner asked me, I would have been guilty of corruption” The socialist mayor of Manzanares, José Luis Labrador, explained on social media, hoping to calm the anger brewing in his municipality. He immediately announced the upcoming development of a new park, on a vacant lot used until now as a parking lot. The parents, for their part, decided not to give up.
On Onda Cero radio, the Duchess of Infantado assured that there was “He suffered from having to arrive [à l’expulsion] “, and blamed “greed” from the town hall, while she “I spent a lot of money on park-related taxes”On September 15, the day the garden officially returned to the Casa del Infantado, dozens of families gathered in the park to demonstrate for the last time. “Until when will a single family be able to transmit property inherited from a feudal system, to the detriment of the general interest?” laments Vera Sanz, a 45-year-old audiovisual technician, who is now deprived of a play area for her three young children.
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