Luis Arroyo re -elected as president of the Madrid Athenaeum with 67% of the vote | Culture | EUROtoday

Luis Arroyo has been re -elected with 67% of the vote as president of the Madrid Athenaeum, alongside together with his Group 1820 candidacy, within the elections held on Wednesday. In these elections, it was sought to resume, for a interval of two years, six of the 11 members that make up the Governing Board. They have voted 620 Ateneists of the two,600 members referred to as.

Group 1820 (in reference to the 12 months of basis of the establishment) got here to manipulate in June 2021 with the target of endeavor an anticipated, and mentioned, renewal of the Athenaeum. The arduous activity of modernizing sustaining the essences and with out falling into the decline. “Now it’s time to finish the job,” says Arroyo.

Your program has been primarily based on some factors. The first: get companions. Already the creation of Group 1820 promoted affiliations, however for 4 years they’ve grown from 1,700 to 2,600. “This for me is very important: an institution must have a stable number of partners, and here it did not stop falling from the democratic recast of the Athenaeum in 1984, when it reached the figure of 6,700,” says the president.

Another concern of the Arroyo group was to attain larger public relevance, extra exercise and visibility, which the president considers achieved. And the third pillar has been the monetary one: a funds of about 900,000 euros has handed to virtually two million yearly. One of essentially the most controversial moments occurred when, in 2023, the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, withdrew a subsidy of 100,000 euros to the Athenaeum … another establishment. But now, says Arroyo, the collaboration has returned and the relationships are right.

His mandates have appeared filled with belligerence and criticism. “Actually the Athenaeum has always been a belligerent space, only that before our arrival that anger was not so disseminated. Of course, the opposition comes from a small but very vociferous group,” says Arroyo. The President has been accused of dictatorial or his political relationship with the PSOE has been shaved. “Is it that you can’t be of a political party? Was Azaña not president of the Athenaeum?” Arroyo is shocked. But, regardless of the headlines and accusations, the president prefers to take iron from the factor: “If people come, you will see that there is a very good vibes and that nothing happens. Sometimes things are like that in such a living, democratic and participatory institution like this.”

Some of essentially the most colourful actions promoted by Group 1820 have needed to do with the revitalization as a social membership of the well-known Cacharrería room, well-known for its gatherings wherein the principle flat of the Spanish intellectuality met; Or the inclusion of ladies within the gallery of portraits the place, amongst many darkish and nineteenth -a -nine males, Emilia Pardo Bazán was very alone.

Now Almudena Grandes, Carmen LaForet, Clara Campoamor, Carmen de Burgos, María Zambrano, Elena Fortún or Rosa Chacel. A person has additionally entered: Federico García Lorca. “What surprises me is that such a simple and important thing would not have been done before,” says Arroyo. Among the works to be accomplished, the beginning -up of the canteen, now closed by issues with the concessionary firm, which the president desires to have open earlier than summer season, or, on the newest, for the brand new course.

Other re -elected positions have been Pepita Marín (member of the Board of Directors of Hurry, editor of El País), as First Secretary, Gonzalo Vázquez, as second vp, Miguel Fill, as a second vowel, Ana Santos, as Library Partner, and Isabel Fuentes, as depositary. Thus, Group 1820 was imposed on the convergence candidacy for the democratic stability of the Athenaeum, with the presidency of Miguel Pastrana and the candidacy for the restoration of the essence of the Athenaeum, chaired by María Teresa Pedraza Guzmán de Lázaro.