Martínez-Almeida reclaims Casa Árabe headquarters for municipal use and Foreign Ministry accuses him of “institutional disloyalty”

Eduardo González The Madrid City Council has announced the reclaiming of the main headquarters of Casa Árabe for “its rehabilitation and future municipal use.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lamented this “incomprehensible” decision and accused the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, of acting “with absolute institutional disloyalty.” According to the City Council's website, Martínez-Almeida announced the reclaiming of the Escuelas Aguirre building “for its rehabilitation and subsequent use by the City Council,” a decision that the Council formally communicated this Monday during the Extraordinary Governing Council meeting of the Casa Árabe Consortium. “The historic building, located at the intersection of Alcalá and O'Donnell streets, has housed the headquarters of Casa Árabe since March 2008, following a major interior renovation. Its transfer was intended to strengthen cultural and institutional ties with the Arab world and consolidate Madrid as an international meeting point,” the statement continued. However, the withdrawal of the Community of Madrid from the Casa Árabe Consortium, announced last January and ratified this Monday, “will modify the composition of the board of trustees and entitles the City Council to exercise its right to recover the building without compensation, in accordance with the transfer decree of April 28, 2008, which regulated the temporary and free transfer of the property.” “This decree establishes, among the grounds for termination of the transfer, ‘any alteration in the composition of the consortium,’” the City Council noted. “With the restoration of this building, the City Council reaffirms its commitment to the preservation and enhancement of the city’s historical heritage,” he continued. “The Council will promote the rehabilitation of the property to dedicate it to new municipal uses for the benefit of all Madrid residents,” it concluded. Foreign Ministry response In response to this decision, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed its regret over the decision by the Mayor of Madrid “and the manner and terms in which it was disseminated, demonstrating absolute institutional disloyalty.” According to sources within the Ministry who spoke to The Diplomat, the Madrid City Council announced, “without any prior communication or notification to the consortium members,” its decision to demand the return of the building that houses the Casa Árabe. According to the Ministry, “this decision is especially incomprehensible at a time when the current management of the Casa Árabe is acting with commendable efficiency, following the decisions of the Governing Council, to improve its management and administration.” “The Madrid City Council is part of the Governing Council and has always participated in all decisions regarding the administration and management of the Casa Árabe that have been made collectively by said Governing Council,” the sources stated. “Therefore, the City Council has participated throughout all these years in its oversight and monitoring, signing its minutes, and without expressing any kind of disagreement,” they added. Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “over the past few years, the City Council has failed to provide the technical, administrative, or financial support necessary to adapt the spaces, thus contributing significantly to their lack of maintenance and progressive deterioration.” Therefore, the Ministry “has sent several letters to the mayor in recent months, requesting essential action for the proper maintenance of the building, and is still awaiting a response to its latest letter.” This decision, like the one taken by the Autonomous Community of Madrid regarding Casa Árabe, “has a distinctly partisan character, calls into question its commitment to working constructively to develop friendly relations and dialogue between Spain and the Arab world, and represents an attack on the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation to build a national foreign policy,” the sources continued. For all these reasons, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “reiterates its support for the work of Casa Árabe, a public diplomacy institution with the Arab world with a 20-year history and headquarters in Madrid and Córdoba, throughout which its indispensable role in Spain’s foreign policy has been highlighted, and is committed to finding a solution that allows for the continuity of its work,” they concluded. In February 2025, the Council of Ministers approved the Royal Decree granting the highest level of heritage protection to the Casa Árabe headquarters in Madrid, as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), in the category of Monument. Designed by the architect Emilio Rodríguez Ayuso and inaugurated in 1886, the Escuelas Aguirre building is considered one of the finest examples of Neo-Mudéjar architecture in Madrid, a highly complex and expressive historicist style that emerged at the end of the 19th century. Located at number 62 Alcalá Street, next to the northern entrance of Retiro Park, it is currently included within the boundaries of the area known as the Landscape of Light, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2021. The complex, which belongs to the Madrid City Council, has served various purposes over the years. In March 2008, after a modern renovation of its interior spaces, the City Council transferred the building to Casa Árabe, a Spanish public diplomacy entity that operates as a strategic center for Spain's relations with the Arab world. Its consortium comprises the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the Regional Government of Andalusia, the Madrid City Council, and the Córdoba City Council. The Community of Madrid withdrew from the consortium last March. Casa Árabe has two locations, in Madrid and Córdoba.

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