Madrid’s Maggie homage divides opinion

From Iron Lady to a Madrid square, the legacy of the late Baroness Thatcher – UK Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990 – continues to divide opinion across Britain and Europe following this week’s unveiling of Plaza Margaret Thatcher in the Spanish capital…

Spain’s gesture to remember Margaret Thatcher in such honourable terms has been welcomed among the more conservative parts of the UK media, but drew a predictable amount of ire from left-wing groups, and a sense of bemusement among some of the more left-leaning newspapers, including the Guardian.

Yet while tabloid editors up and down the country were busy trying to shoehorn a traffic-based “not for turning” joke into their news copy, Baroness Thatcher’s son, Sir Mark Thatcher, was speaking at the unveiling of the square, which is located in Madrid’s Salamanca district – one of the city’s more upscale, conservative addresses.

“I know that her history, her honour, will be adequately well defended by the people of Spain, the people of Madrid and in particular, in this wonderful location, which will live for many, many years in the future,” said Mark Thatcher.

The Madrid square becomes the first of its kind outside of the UK to honour the deceased PM, and the city’s mayor, Ana Botella, was keen to point out why Spain decided to remember Baroness Thatcher in such a way.

“She was a transforming personality, capable of defying bankrupt economic and social paradigms,” she said. “The end of the Cold War, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in a revolt against communism, the downfall of the Soviet Union, could not be explained without Margaret Thatcher.”

At the inauguration ceremony, left-wing protest parties were vocal in their opposition to the square, but city councillor Fernando Martínez Vidal pointed out that the decision was not exclusively politically based.

“She was a woman in a world of men, and that means she had to work twice as hard to reach the level that she did,” said Vidal, who also revealed that Madrid does not honour living political figures. “Salamanca is Madrid’s most conservative district in terms of PP votes and is one of the party’s bastions in the city, so that is why we have decided to leave her in good hands, shall we say,” added Vidal.

In the Guardian, commentators wrote that Thatcher’s politics were never particularly popular in Spain, although they also pointed out that the attendant Spaniards appeared to beam with pride that their capital now bore the name of one of the 20^th century’s most (in)famous political figures.

It is certainly an interesting decision on Madrid’s part. Despite voting Conservative for more than 20 years, Thatcher’s honouring in the beating heart of the city feels a little at odds with the neighbouring luminaries – namely Christopher Columbus and legendary Spanish artist Francisco Goya.

And although many Madrileños are happy to welcome Margaret Thatcher to their city, some were evidently less thrilled – within 24 hours of the unveiling, the square was mildly vandalised by disgruntled protestors who plastered stickers criticising Thatcher’s reign and the role her Conservative government is alleged to have played in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.