• Lighting A winter garden on Gran Vía: 1.3 kilometres of luminous plants to decorate Christmas on the city's main artery

They say that on that winter morning in 1986 the cold was scratching and, also, that there was not a cloud over the capital, hence the sun peeking out indiscreetly. From the early hours of the day, quite a few people crowded around the Congress. And, in addition, that in the streets and squares near the Carrera de San Jerónimo they wore flags and pennants, and the balconies showed their best clothes. It was January 30. The then Prince Philip reached the age of majority and swore an oath to a Constitution with just over seven years of life.

But Madrid still exuded an intense aroma of sadness. The week before, its sidewalks had collapsed to bid farewell to Enrique Tierno Galván (he died on January 19). The coffin was carried in procession, with a horse-drawn carriage, during the two kilometres that separate the Casa de la Villa, then the headquarters of the Town Hall, and the Plaza de Cibeles. From there, already motorized, the body of the man who was mayor between 1979 and 1986 was taken to the Almudena Cemetery.

Two very different canvases in a short span of time. The Spain and Madrid of 37 years ago has nothing to do with the one that will witness the oath of Princess Leonor today.

Few lived those hard and icy days of January 1986 as intensely as Juan Barranco (Santiago de Calatrava, 1947), acting councillor since the 19th, when The Old Professor died. The Plenary of the Consistory proclaimed him mayor two days before Prince Felipe, today Felipe VI and father of Princess Leonor, swore in the Constitution.

"The funeral of Tierno Galván was very recent, which was the most impressive manifestation of mourning that has taken place in Madrid and, probably, in the modern history of Spain. A demonstration without ideology. Tierno had not only been mayor, but also the man who wrote the preamble to the Spanish Constitution that Felipe VI was going to swear in on January 30 and that Princess Leonor will have in front of him this Tuesday," recalls Barranco, who would occupy the mayor's office between 1986 and 1989. He witnessed that event on the television he had in his office at City Hall.

Giant screens in Callao and Sol

Despite the decoration of some streets near the Congress, that celebration had nothing to do with this one. "The City Council did not have an active participation. There was nothing special, beyond what happened in the Palacio de las Cortes," he says, referring to the giant screens that will broadcast the event in the Plaza de Callao and the Puerta del Sol. Also of the posters with the face of Princess Leonor that hang from lampposts or EMT buses decorated with the coat of arms of the Crown and the flag. "I don't care about the cost for such a historic event. Madrid has to live up to the commemoration and show its adherence and loyalty to the Monarchy," José Luis Martínez-Almeida stressed yesterday from Cibeles, without giving an approximate figure.

Prince Philip's Ceremony, in 1986.EFE

"There was a lot of expectation because this young man was taking on great responsibilities. We saw it as a hope for the future and, also, to break with the past," says the man who then held the baton, praising the presence of all the presidents of the communities. "José AntonioArdanza (Basque Country) and Jordi Pujol (Catalonia) were there. That mainly differentiates us from today [neither Íñigo Urkullu nor Pere Aragonès will go]. We are in a complex time, where consensus is more difficult to reach," adds Barranco, who underlines the good relationship between Tierno Galván and Princess Leonor's great-grandfather, Don Juan de Borbón: "They even saw each other in Estoril."

Still recovering from the shock of the loss of Tierno, the capital held that ceremony that today, 37 years later, is a global focus. With a Madrid City Council fully involved in the festivities, and with Almeida present at the Congress.

"Something that looks like it's from another century"

The Consistory of the capital will distribute 7,500 flags, will illuminate the Palacio de Cibeles and the fountains of Cibeles and Neptune with the colors of the national flag (October 30 and 31), and the honor guard of the Municipal Police, chaired by the deputy mayor, Inmaculada Sanz, will be deployed next to the Casa de la Villa. The festivities will conclude this afternoon in El Retiro Park, with a concert by the Municipal Symphonic Band, conducted by maestro Jan Cober.

The City Council's operation generated some discomfort in the PSOE. And not because of the expense it will entail, but because of the lack of communication of the Executive itself with the opposition, according to party sources told this newspaper yesterday. Even so, Reyes Maroto will attend, in the company of Enrique Rico, member of the leadership of the socialist group, the greeting of the entourage in the Plaza de la Villa. Rita Maestre, who yesterday made her position clear, will not do so. "All our respect as Más Madrid to the institutions of the State and to the official acts around them, but this is something else: we are not going to participate in something that seems to be from another century," said the leader of the opposition.

Princess Leonor's mugs.AITOR MARTINEFE

Barranco digs into his memory for the last time. Retrieving frames from that morning. "We came from that great consensus that was the 1978 Constitution, the same one that Princess Leonor will swear in this Tuesday." As if time had reduced those almost four decades between the two eras to a sigh. Between that Madrid of mourning in 1986 and this one, marked by a kind of Leonormania.

  • Articles Carlos Guisasola
  • José Luis Martínez-Almeida