The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has announced that the City Council will support the celebration of Shakira’s concerts at the Iberdrola Music venueif they are finally held there, in the face of the rejection of the Government delegate, Francisco Martín, whom he has accused of object to the summons “without knowing” the details and only because of a “political battle” and “resentment” towards the municipal government.
Francisco Martín has called to move the recently announced concerts by Shakira at the Iberdrola Music venue to other venues. He assures that this space, located in Villaverde and near Getafe, “it still does not have the necessary conditions” to celebrate large events. For Almeida, however, the fact that the Colombian has chosen the capital to offer three concerts is something “extraordinary” and even more so coming from “possibly the most successful Latin artist.”
“We know that there are three days and if they were more it would also seem good to us that Shakira could perform in the city of Madrid in an infrastructure that was created ad hoc in that ‘Shakira Stadium’, because It is a brand from Madrid to the world which is hardly comparable with any other that can be produced,” he explained from Madrid Calle 30.
He is clear that “the eyes and attention of the world in the musical field during those days will be here, in Madrid, at the ‘Shakira Stadium'” and that is why For the City Council it is “great news”. “We welcome Shakira, we thank her for choosing the city of Madrid, we understand that it is also a good example of the situation and the state that Madrid is experiencing, of the international impact, because you want to be in Madrid, people want to come to Madrid and we open wide the doors of this city,” the councilor stressed.
The delegate seeks to “torpedo” Madrid
That is contrary to the attitude that you see in the delegate, who this morning launched some “absolutely irresponsible statements” with which it seeks to “torpedo any event that may take place in the city of Madrid, even affecting the safety of the people of Madrid, as happened in La Vuelta, or putting up all kinds of obstacles regarding the venue that could be chosen by Shakira”.
“It is unacceptable that the Government delegate, without knowing what it will consist of, what the conditions arewhat this infrastructure requires, say now that it is not going to be held in a certain place,” Martínez-Almeida condemned, after accusing him of “torpedoing the city of Madrid again.”
“The Government delegate He has a grudge against the city of Madrid because without knowing absolutely anything, without having any technical details, you have automatically ruled out an enclosure that, by the way, He has already authorized three consecutive years to celebrate the Mad Cool“, he told Martín. In these three years the festival promoters “have done a great job to minimize the inconvenience and to improve everything that needed to be improved,” he added.
He sees in all this a “political battle” shared by the Government delegate and the mayor of Getafe, from the same party, whom “Madridians don’t care”. “And we are not going to go through there and, therefore, if the venue finally chosen for the ‘Shakira Stadium’ is the Iberdrola Music, the City Council already says that we will certainly support it.”
