From the balcony of the Casa de la Villa, although without being eight in the afternoon, Santiago Segura applauded the essential workers of the Madrid City Council during the proclamation of San Isidro, which the Madrid actor and director has truffled with chascarrillos and has culminated by singing the zarzuela ‘La Gran Vía’ a cappella.
Both Segura and the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, have agreed on value the work of employees of essential services municipalities, part of which have heard the proclamation in the fenced Plaza de la Villa, where chairs have been arranged with their corresponding safety distance.
Members of Samur Social, the Municipal Police, cleaning staff and parks and gardens, firefighters, mobility agents, Samur-Civil Protection, EMT and Calle 30 personnel, among others, have received the applause from the town crier and the row of presents who have witnessed the kick-off of the San Isidro festivities from the other side of the fence.
“They are our public servants, women and men who leave their skin beyond what they should (…). Every day at eight o’clock we would applaud you from the balcony, and now I am on this balcony, although it is not eight o’clock, I continue to applaud you from the proclamation “, Segura said from the old headquarters of the Madrid City Council.
Accompanied on the balcony by the mayor; the vice mayor, Begoña Villacís; the Culture delegate, Andrea Levy; and members of the opposition, Segura has invited Madrilenians to celebrate the feast of San Isidro “responsibly” and with caution, “without paranoia but with caution.”
“We are in the final stretch, let’s not screw it up now”, Segura said.
“The goal is there, we are seeing it”, Almeida has warned in the first proclamation of his mandate, since last year the city’s patron saint festivities were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In this way, Santiago Segura has succeeded Elvira Lindo, preacher in 2019, whom he remembered in his speech, and also the 2018 master of ceremonies, Almudena Grandes. With those “two masters of the pen” giving the proclamation before him, Segura explained that his goal for this year has been to comply with a series of “rules” to create the “perfect” proclamation.
One of those rules is the “justification of madrilieñismo”, point in which he has commented that he was the second child to be born at the La Paz hospital, or that he studied high school at the San Isidro institute.
“A very traditional institute. Several illustrious people studied there: Pío Baroja, Juan Carlos I and myself. Come on, removing Baroja not so many illustrious “, he commented.
Segura has plagued the speech with anecdotes and references to personalities such as Berlanga and Joaquín Sabina, he recalled the famous ‘relaxing cup of café con leche’ by Ana Botella, has pointed out the resemblance of the current mayor to Austin Powers and he has read a fragment of the proclamation that Fernando Fernán Gómez read in 1985 before he finished singing the zarzuela ‘La Gran Vía’ a cappella.
Although, yes, he explained that his final proclamation was to put the coronavirus vaccine live – he would have put any, even the “Astraciénaga”-, something that could not happen because the City Council told him that he is not part of the priority age groups.
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