The decision to deny, by the Community, a traditional subsidy of 100,000 euros that the Ateneo de Madrid had been receiving has caused a significant cultural and political stir in the capital with a notable echo 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 Scientology church, the country's most renowned humanists of the last two centuries have passed through its rooms.
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 financial aid model, with the aim of funding specific rather than general projects. De Paco has even stated that “no one is going to defend him more than me.”
The Ateneo will have to sharpen its ingenuity from now on, 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 on the networks, that the decision is based on the fact that the autonomous government considers that the institution has become a focus of criticism towards the PP. In conservative sectors they described the decision as “clumsiness.”
The president of the institution, 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 where you can see what the Ateneo is. What institution can have among its partners Felipe González and Sánchez, Aznar and Zapatero, and even Rajoy? Yes, the Ateneo de Madrid.
It was no coincidence that King Felipe VI pronounced these words just a few weeks ago at the bicentennial commemoration ceremony: “The Ateneo de Madrid has always been the vanguard of culture and science, a refuge for free thought, a space for debate and intellectual meeting, emblem of its time.” You only need to spend an afternoon at the institution to see that this is the case. Theatre, debate, philosophy, literature, politics...
The Ateneo is an obligatory point for Madrid culture, even more so in a city that sometimes begins to look more like a theme park for foreigners and inaccessible to its residents.
