Controversy against Almeida over Madrid Pride posters: chairs, candies, and balconies instead of LGTBIQ+ memory

The Pride of Madrid starts again with controversy under the mandate of José Luis Martínez-Almeida. The municipal campaign for MADO Madrid Pride 2026, which takes place from June 25 to July 5, has filled the city with banners under the slogan “Proudly from Madrid”, accompanied by terrace chairs, balconies with flowers or jars of candies dyed with the colors of the rainbow. What does not appear on the posters is equally significant: neither the acronym LGTBIQ+, nor people from the collective, nor a clear reference to the political and protest memory of 28J.

Indignation has spread rapidly on social media and among LGTBIQ+ entities. Arcópoli has accused the City Council of “insulting LGTBI+ memory” and of executing a “systematic erasure” of people from the collective, whom they “do not even deign to mention.” The association maintains that the campaign looks more like the promotion of “a day for Madrid residents” than the commemoration of a historical struggle. Among the most shared messages, the same idea is repeated: “What is being celebrated, Pride or Madrid Day?” Other users have compared the display to the Pope's visit, when the City Council and Community did fill the capital with Vatican symbols.

The PSOE has also criticized the campaign. Reyes Maroto accuses Almeida of turning Pride into “marketing” and of reducing LGTBIQ+ diversity to “a decorative element”, erasing those who conquered rights that still cannot be taken for granted. The criticism connects with a controversy that is repeated every year since the PP came to the City Council: the refusal to hang the rainbow flag in Cibeles, the decaffeinated institutional campaigns and the feeling that the municipal government tolerates Pride as a massive event, but avoids assuming it as a political demand.

Ione Belarra, leader of Podemos and future candidate for the Community of Madrid, has joined the criticism, linking the municipal campaign with Isabel Díaz Ayuso's decision not to hang the LGTBIQA+ flag during Pride. "Ayuso decides not to hang the LGTBIQA+ flag during Pride and Almeida fills Madrid with posters that are pure pinkwashing," she wrote on X. Belarra accuses the PP of being "dragged by Vox" and has defended that Podemos will be "on the front defending rights against so many fascists."

Almeida: Pride has "better health" than in 2019

Almeida responded this morning by accusing the left of seeking controversy every time Pride arrives. "They entertain themselves with flags and posters; we take care that Pride is that protest, open, and joyful celebration that it has always been in the city of Madrid," he defended. The mayor boasts that the celebration has "better health" than in 2019, when the left said that the mayor was going to end Pride, a situation that has not occurred.