Traditional bullfights continue to be a priority for the new PP government in the Madrid city of San Sebastián de los Reyes, as they were previously also for the bipartisan formed by the PSOE and Ciudadanos. If during the previous legislature under which the socialist Narciso Romero governed, no expense was spared for bullfights and recreational events on the occasion of the patronal festivities of the Santísimo Cristo de los Remedios – who was even named “perpetual mayor » –, this year Budgetary allocations for this purpose have also skyrocketed to well over one million euros (1,263,000), to which must be added this year an extraordinary credit of 185,000 euros approved in mid-August by the government team.
The residents of “Sanse” – as this municipality is commonly called – have, for their part, noticed how the municipal government is not so generous with other things that are much more necessary for the population. A clear example is the area of Education, which has a budget of 408,478 euros for the maintenance of its centers. Even if these data are bad, the most surprising thing of all is that this is precisely where part of this credit of 75,000 euros approved by the council to be able to cover the increase in expenses linked to confinement comes from.
The “bullfighting fair” includes two bullfights, two days of cupping, the traditional calf de peñas and a bullfight. To the eight bull races which take place between August 25 and September 1, we must add now the night running of the bulls, which has taken place since 2023, and the “white running of the bulls”, which take place in January And which represents an additional expense for the coffers of a municipality already known as “little Pamplona”.
As denounced and demonstrated by one of the opposition groups, Izquierda Independiente, the Governing Council decided in mid-August to allocate an extraordinary credit totaling 185,000 euros to be able to cover all these events bullfighting and contracts concluded for holidays. . employers, expenses which already amount to more than a million euros. The expansion of this credit – not included in the municipal budgets that had just been approved a week before thanks to the crucial abstention of the PSOE – went unnoticed by municipal groups given that in August there was no activity within the municipal council.
But in September the group led by Juan Torres realized and verified that the PP government had withdrawn part of this credit – 75,000 euros – from education allocations. The version of the PP leaders is that this money could be used for the celebrations thanks to “energy savings in schools and educational centers”, which, for the Torres group, in reality represents an “unjustified and scandalous reduction of planned economic resources”. improving public schools and nursery schools.
His group took advantage of the municipal plenary session convened in September to demand explanations from the PP government and ask it to publicize the agreement of the Governing Council, which was finally read and made public during this session. It turned out at the time that the additional credit authorized for the celebrations actually amounted to 185,000 euros. On the other hand, the credit allocated to “the maintenance of municipal buildings and primary education centers”, established at 408,478 euros, suffered “a reduction” of 75,000 euros, a figure which was added to another. reduces funds for municipal sports centers by up to 185,000 euros. Torres regrets that after reading the resolution they were not allowed to intervene in the plenary session and he does not doubt that this is a “treacherous and deceptive step”.
“Neither teachers nor students are a priority for the PP municipality,” he laments. As he explains, “in Sanse, there are 17 public schools and three nursery schools, one of which is managed indirectly. Some of them have trash bins that have not been changed for 30 years and many facilities are obsolete. This money could have been used for air conditioning in the centers when the extreme heat arrives in summer, for new windows and awnings, etc.
What the Izquierda Independiente spokesperson also doesn’t understand is why the other left-wing opposition groups, Más Madrid and PSOE, have not joined their complaints. The one who expects nothing is from Vox or from Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero, the former deputy mayor who was previously in Ciudadanos, who is now the only councilor of Vecinos por Sanse and supports the PP.
On the day of the approval of the municipal accounts, the socialist and former municipal councilor Narciso Romero, described as “active abstention” what his party had given to these budgets, assuring that it was “necessary for the stability of the municipality “. » and his group, I wanted to “be useful to the neighbors”. The PSOE also declared that it was thus preventing the PP from “agreeing with Vox” on budgets.
The credit was thanks to “energy savings” in schools
The consistory, as on previous occasions, did not spare money for the new edition of the festivities of the Santísimo Cristo de los Remedios. One of the groups hired was Las Nancys Rubias, by Mario Vaquerizo, a regular at all the celebrations organized by the PP. DJs Nano and Brian Cross also performed. Without forgetting the parades and the “spectacular” fireworks display from Vulcano pyrotechnics.
Given the criticism received and the controversy generated by this credit, sources from the municipal government led by the leader of the PP, Lucía Fernández, assured elDiario.es that the accusation of Izquierda Independiente “is false and only denotes the lack of knowledge that some politicians have of the functioning of a municipal budget. However, they recognize that it is true that the 75,000 euros allocated to help pay for the bulls come from Education budgets, while specifying that “there is no reduction”. “It’s quite the opposite. This money comes from an economic surplus coming from the savings we have made in the energy consumed by the centers, a surplus which has been used for other purposes,” affirm these sources.
“San Sebastián de los Reyes is one of the municipalities in all of Spain that devotes the most effort to public education. Today, we are one of the few municipalities that provides grants for meals and school supplies to families at the start of classes, and no candidate who needs them is left without them. The complete opposite of what happened during the socialist era,” they defend. Furthermore, they add that “regarding the maintenance of schools, we have made an investment and an implementation never seen before. And there is a short, medium and long term school maintenance plan which is absolutely exemplary.”
Focused on bullfighting
In 2022, the same municipal group had already denounced a reduction made the previous year, while the effects of the pandemic were still being felt, of 359,000 euros less for Education by the local government of the PSOE and Ciudadanos. Torres then assured that 224,000 euros from the “Sans Concilia” program and 135,000 euros from the maintenance and improvement of early childhood and primary education centers had been used to allocate them “to the economic rebalancing of the private company that manages the Dehesa Boyal and La Viña Sports Centers”. The municipal government also defended itself by saying that these were “funds that had not been spent”.
In this legislature there was already strong controversy due to the increase in bullfighting and the decision to open a bullfighting museum in honor of the matador José Ortega Cano, who, although he was born in Murcia , part of his family emigrated to San Sebastián de los Reyes. To do this, the PSOE government ordered the dismantling of one of the rooms of the Ethnographic Museum which houses the history of the city’s ancestors and its customs.
Not only Izquierda Independiente, but also environmentalists and animal rights activists from Sanse harshly criticized the decision to pay tribute to the right-hander who, in 2011, while driving under the influence of alcohol, ran over a man, who died. Ortega Cano was ordered to pay compensation of 158,000 euros to the family of the deceased and to withdraw his license for three years. In addition, the judges imposed a sentence of two years and six months in prison for the offense of reckless homicide and reckless driving, of which he only served a year and a half, after which he was eligible for the third degree. The museum in his honor is still open in San Sebastián de los Reyes but, according to neighbors, “it hardly receives any visitors.”
