“We continue to be David against a Goliath behind whom there is a million-dollar fund,” says José Manuel Paredes, of the Bernabéu Injured Association. “I am not going to apologize for being a lawyer and a woman,” says Sacramento Ramos, president of the Neighborhood Initiative Association for the Defense of the Environment and against the Paseo de la Habana-Padre Damián tunnel. They respond to the criticism that, according to Sacramento, “wanted to turn this issue into a class struggle,” formulated after the partial victory against Real Madrid: the postponement, at least until March 2025, of all concerts scheduled in the venue.
The situation that has not been reversed in other parts of the city, such as Villaverde during Mad Cool or the neighborhoods of San Fermín and Orcasur during the festivals organized by the Caja Mágica, arouses a sense of grievance that José Manuel and Sacramento are aware of. They belong to a neighborhood with a population that is predominantly wealthy and elderly, where the PP wins again and again in each election with percentages of votes close to 70%. Inmaculada Ramos, Sacramento’s sister, says that during a demonstration, a neighbor approached her and asked her: “Don’t ask me to stop voting for the PP.” She replied that she could at least change her option in the local and regional elections and maintain her traditional support in the general elections. He does not know what this lady ultimately voted for in the last municipal elections.
Despite this, they deny any preferential treatment from the Madrid administrations. In fact, in statements to Somos Madrid, José Manuel is convinced that “the rest of the associations that protest are also right” and hopes that “they will be able to use in the future what we learn in this conflict.”
“They listen to us because we are right, not because we are chic,” explains this Chamartín resident. “We have not had the support of the City Council or the Community. The mayor said a few days ago that the concerts were a priority for the image of Madrid and that there were no problems apart from some complaints from the neighbourhood,” he recalls. The Madrid councillor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, stressed this Monday that “the concerts are good for the city and give it resonance”, while stressing that “the rest of the neighbours were interested in him from the first moment”. He also stressed his gratitude to Real Madrid for its “brave and responsible” decision, while waiting for “works to guarantee soundproofing”.
A rapid and unprecedented mobilization
The relationship between the Consistory and the club chaired by Florentino Pérez is illustrated by the agreements for the operation of the Bernabéu car parks, two public car parks that the merengue team will operate for the next 40 years with an estimated turnover of 470 million euros. The details of the project (without an environmental impact report), as well as the consequences of the works, had already sparked a mobilization of the neighborhoods before the start of the concerts.
This is not a neighborhood where you would expect such an organized and demanding protest movement. But whoever thought we wouldn’t activate it was wrong.
A response that, according to José Manuel, surprised the municipality and Real Madrid: “This is not a neighborhood where you would expect such an organized and demanding neighborhood protest movement. From the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid [Fravm] They acknowledged that in 40 years they had not seen such an active neighborhood association in Chamartín. But whoever thought that we would not activate it was wrong. It is not for nothing that its reach has exceeded all expectations: the Association of Victims of the Bernabéu has around 2,000 members, while the Neighborhood Initiative for the Defense of the Environment and against the Paseo de la Habana-Padre Damián Tunnel has 373.
Alejandro, a resident of the Plaza de Salvador Dalí affected by the WiZink concerts (another sports venue with a predominance of musical events, in this case also a public building), tells this media that the Goya Dalí Neighborhood Association has less than 200 members, with only between 10 and 12 active participants.
Without more favoritism than those given by inequalities
But it is not just a question of numbers. It is above all a question of resources. “Many of the residents of Chamartín are retired people with free time, with high purchasing power and who work in liberal professions (lawyers, notaries or engineers) thanks to which they know how to act,” explains Alejandro, also a member of the Fravm Eventation monitoring group. He fully supports the residents’ fight against the Bernabéu concerts, but admits that the lack of results in other areas of Madrid can give the feeling that there are “first-class neighbours and second-class neighbours”.
This is not, he explains, a grievance based on favouritism, but on a social inequality that is transferred to the capacity for action: “We do not have the means to continue what is happening with the Palais des Sports. Years ago, we were told that legally, we had a good chance of seeing our permit revoked. In the end, they use an exceptional permit to regularly modify the sporting use of a place, to the point that 80% of the events are musical. But we have neither the strength nor the money to undertake a process to prove it.
Many of Chamartín’s residents are retired people with free time, high purchasing power and liberal professions (lawyers, notaries or engineers) through which they know how to act.
At the Bernabéu, the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso authorises the constant holding of concerts in a venue used for sports through article 19d. of Law 17/1997 on Public Entertainment and Recreational Activities (LEPAR), in which the Community of Madrid includes “shows and recreational activities of an extraordinary nature”, which, according to the law, require express authorisation. This article defines as “extraordinary” those events that “are different from those usually held in premises or establishments and that are not expressly authorised in the corresponding authorisation”.
The Bernabéu Injured Association This was already reported in this newspaper in May. that, in addition to closely monitoring noise violations and “possible judicial fraud in parking works”, its legal services were studying a future complaint for the repeated use in the same space of a clause reserved for specific events. For their part, municipal sources confirmed to this media that the General Directorate of Security of the Community of Madrid issues an authorization for these concerts as Extraordinary Public Entertainment.
He who knows the law knows the trap
The failure of Real Madrid’s projects thus shows that the Bernabéu Injured Association has the strength to denounce irregular acts. And they also have the knowledge to detect them. José Manuel Paredes explains that the criminal complaint for alleged environmental crime against the Bernabéu administrator and right-hand man of Florentino Pérez, José Ángel Sánchez, known as “JAS”, focuses more than on the noise pollution of the irregular permit: “For On On the one hand, there is the noise, the traffic, the degradation that they bring in relation to football matches due to the post-concerts or the fact that alcohol can be consumed inside. But what is clear, what made us understand from the beginning that there was no way to take this, is that they do not have a license for any use other than sporting.
The trial, admitted for processing by the Contentious-Administrative Court number 53 of Madrid, means that “JAS” will testify on October 29 before the courts of the Plaza de Castilla. The private prosecutor’s office has also requested the summons of Almeida and the delegate for the Environment, Urban Planning and Mobility, Borja Carabante, although the court has so far rejected it. “The judge says that she cannot consider the fines imposed on the developers as inaction, even if these sanctions go to the developer of Taylor Swit and not to Real Madrid. And even if paying 20,000 euros is cheaper than paying for the hotel,” explains José Manuel.
On the economic issue, the social mass of the associations and the sociological profile of their members allow them to face expenses that would be unaffordable in other neighborhood battles. Local sources report that the combined funds of the two groups “are in the six figures.” The entity for people affected by the tunnel operates through direct contributions, while the entity for people affected by the tunnel also charges fees.
Either you have a good expert opinion or you eat your snot, that would be our word over the opponent’s.
All this to get money to finance lawyers, communication tasks or expertise. “Either you have a good expert opinion or you eat your snot, that would be our word compared to that of the adversary”, underlines Sacramento. “There are many of us, people are aware of the damage that is being done and they are picking their pockets”, he adds. The difference is that in other neighborhoods, there is nothing to pick.
There are also physical and material conditions that do not allow for equipping every conflict. Gema, from the Stop Mad Cool Villaverde platform, clarifies that “the Bernabéu is going to be soundproofed, that is why they are paralyzing the events and it is normal because what they did was a neighborhood attack.” Of course, he regrets that “in our case, the space cannot be soundproofed” because it is an open-air festival venue.
Of course, those involved do not believe that soundproofing the Merengue stadium is feasible. “What are they going to do? Wall it all up?” wonder the Ramos sisters. José Manuel believes that the “sound disaster” actually made it easier to postpone the concerts: “At Romeo Santos, the acoustics were terrible. It was better heard outside than inside and I think that there they clearly saw that even for their own good, something had to be done.” For Alejandro, all this annoyance from his colleagues at Chamartín hides an underlying problem: “This is not just a battle over noise, it is about the concept of the city that we want.” And this battle, like all the others, is also partly a class struggle.
