The anger and the kicks of the Salamanca councilor against the Ramses terrace: "I am the authority"

The PP councilor for the district of Salamanca and Centro, José Fernández, went in person last Tuesday, July 12, to review the Ramses terrace and Patio de los Leones in the Plaza de la Independencia and ended up kicking furniture and belittling the owner of the business, according to several of those present.

The businessman Jorge Ramses Llovet, owner of both restaurants, recounts that he was humiliated and harassed by the councilman and does not rule out taking legal action against the mayor for what happened that day and for the continuous inspections he receives almost daily by technicians and municipal police.

The agents had to intervene in the brawl.

"This is an abuse of authority. We have done everything that we have been asked,

José Fernández denies to this newspaper that he hit the furniture, although he acknowledges that his behavior could have been at a "blunt" moment.

“I am an authority and that is why I went there to see if the law was being complied with.

It is true that I notified the Municipal Police and my technicians when I saw that I could continue to break the regulations, ”says the councilman, who assures that Ramses and any other establishment have to respect the ordinances and that this place was not doing it.

“What happened is something disproportionate and it is something personal against us,” answers businessman Jorge Llovet, who assures that they have been carrying out almost daily inspections for weeks.

“I have never seen anything like it.

We are looking at the option of going to court.

This is harassment.

Clearly, they are coming for us," says Llovet.

The controversy arises from the corridor that exists between the terrace and the façade of the Ramses and Patio de los Leones restaurants in the Plaza de la Independencia.

That pedestrian strip was occupied by tables, since Jorge Llovet understood that there was a legal loophole that allowed them to occupy that space.

The City Council filed for it to the two premises.

Ramses litigated in court and finally lost his appeals before a judge a few days ago.

He had to leave that corridor free for pedestrians, right next to the facade of his restaurants.

The municipal

was celebrated by Councilman José Fernández with a message on Twitter last Friday, July 8.

“In the district of Salamanca there are no neighbors or first-class and second-class hoteliers.

Everyone must comply and everyone must conform to the ordinances.

We return a space to pedestrians that had been invaded.

Several neighbors responded to the councilman's message on Monday, July 11, assuring that the terrace was still invading that pedestrian corridor and provided photos of the alleged new infraction of the public highway.

On Tuesday, July 12, councilor José Fernández appeared at 11:30 on the terrace, very upset, according to those present.

"The normal thing is that his technicians come, but he himself appeared and began to say that everything was a shame," says one of the employees.

As soon as he arrived, he shouted and badly addressed the manager of the Patio de los Leones restaurant, scolding her for the state of the corridor.

Subsequently, according to eyewitnesses, "the mayor approached the two flowerpots and to everyone's astonishment began to kick the plants in the two flowerpots, destroying one of them, at the same time that he shouted asking why they were those planters there."

The mayor José Fernández assures that he was annoyed to see those two flowerpots with the sign "Town Hall works, sorry for the inconvenience" and a construction booth in the corridor located between the facade and the terrace, which once again hindered the itinerary of pedestrians in Independence Square.

Llovet maintains that he had already voluntarily removed the tables and dividers from that corridor and that the booth had been installed by the owner of the building (the Ramses and Patio de los Leones premises are rented) to carry out some sewage work authorized by the City Council until the end of July.

«We put the two planters and a signage to indicate to the pedestrians that there was a work.

Just to help people get out into the square, nothing more.

The councilor thought that the booth was ours and began to kick the planters, shout and say barbarities, "says Llovet.

The mayor José Fernández defends that he did not kick anything, although he admits that he was furious and that he called the Police and the technicians: “The only thing I have wanted is for the legality to be complied with.

What cannot be is that everyone complies and they do not, "emphasizes Fernández, who reiterates that" Ramses is not being persecuted.

Faced with this violent situation and after being called, the businessman and owner of Ramsés came.

Llovet maintains that he tried to talk to the councilman and explained that the flowerpots with plants were provisionally in that corridor, while the sewage works continued and that these works did not depend on the establishment.

Due to the shouts and the continuous anger of the councilman, the businessman defended himself by replying that he considered himself insulted and underestimated: "I could not disrespect myself like that in front of my employees and clients," complains Llovet.

The discussion escalated and was very tense to the point that the Municipal Police had to intervene and mediate.

The agents of the Municipal Police drew up the corresponding inspection report of which this newspaper has a copy, in which they do not even mention the two flowerpots with plants, limiting themselves to stating as authorized a list of tables, chairs, umbrellas and separators subject to the pavement, also specifying curiously, that at that time there are fewer installed than those authorized.

The flowerpots with the plants were removed despite the fact that the councilor verified that the corridor was still blocked by the work booth.

Subsequently, according to the businessman, the two restaurants are having continuous inspection visits by the technicians of the Board and the Municipal Police, for which the businessman Jorge Ramsés Llovet has made the facts known to his lawyer and is studying filing the corresponding complaints. and legal actions against the councilor for "degrading treatment, coercion, harassment, persecution, threats, etc..., since he feels insistently harassed, and coerced in his individual and professional freedom."

The hotelier points out, after speaking with his lawyers, that the coercion he is suffering, as stated in the Penal Code, "

The businessman insists that the councilman was confused and lost his nerve.

«He called the technicians and the police.

We looked like criminals.

He did not stop screaming and started hitting the pots and moving them.

All very aggressive », says the owner of the two restaurants, who also acknowledges that he raised his voice to defend himself against the councilman's threatening tone.

It also adds that "in its day, due to the pandemic, the facilities of the terraces in the Plaza de la Independencia, were verbally authorized by political leaders as a way out of the difficult situation of economic crisis that the hospitality sector was suffering , and that now if the criterion has been changed, it is logical that we be given a margin of time to restructure the installation of the material, because we must not forget that Ramsés in his day was a promoter of quality leisure in the Puerta de Alcalá 15 years ago years, in 2007, and for this I hired the best designer in the world Philippe Starck".

The incident caused by the councilor in broad daylight and in the presence of the employees and customers of the two premises, has been widely publicized among some political representatives and businessmen of the Association of entertainment and entertainment venues of the Madrid Community, Noche Madrid .

One of the associates commented ironically: "The councilor of the districts of Centro and Salamanca has gone to verify the papers of the Ramsés and has lost them. In all the years of history and experience of the hoteliers of Madrid, this way has never been seen anachronistic action of a politician, except for those already historical scenes in the 80s of councilor Ángel Matanzo".

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