The gardens of the Marivent Palace in Palma open to the public, in a file image.JAIME REINA
Deputies of United We Can in Congress and the Balearic
Parliament
have signed this Friday a letter addressed to King Felipe VI in which they demand the return of the Marivent Palace to the citizens to transform it into a museum for public use.
The ownership of the property, summer residence of the Royal Family, belongs to the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, but only since 2017, a plot of the gardens can be visited, a historical claim of the parties of the left included in the regional government agreement between PSOE and MES.
The building and its contents —nearly 1,300 works of art, 2,000 books and more than 100 pieces of furniture— were donated in 1966 by the widow of the painter Ioannes Saridakis, its first owner, to the Balearic Islands Provincial Council on the condition that this became a museum open to the public that could exceptionally serve heads of state.
Franco's dictatorship, in 1973, decided to define Marivent as the summer residence of Juan Carlos I and years later, in 1986, the Justice ordered the return of the works, the furniture and the books to the heir of Saridakis, who claimed them to the be breaching the mandate, stipulated by contract, of the donor.
National Heritage once again provided works of art to the palace.
The UP deputies, in statements to the media, have considered that with this initiative "they embrace the historical demands of the Balearic Islands citizens".
In their letter they recall that there have been other examples of buildings and spaces that have ended up dedicated to public use, such as the Casa de Campo in Madrid or the Retiro Park.
In the same way, the letter continues, if the Marivent Palace were returned to the public, "the neighbors could enjoy one of the privileged enclaves around Palma".
The parliamentarians also believe that the return would be an "undoubted attraction for the islands".
“It would be a small gesture from the Royal House in the sense of trying to contribute, in some way, to overcoming the crisis and to the diversification of the tourism model,
In the words of the secretary of Horizonte Republicano de Podemos, Rafa Mayoral, Felipe VI is “the only person” who can make a decision that he has described as an “act of historical justice”.
Last August, MES per Mallorca announced that it would register an initiative in Parliament to demand the return of the palace, but according to UP sources, the non-law proposal has not yet been debated.
The letter also recalls that the
Government
allocates almost one million euros each year for the maintenance of facilities and gardens and another 220,000 for National Heritage.
Among the signatories of the letter are the deputies of the Balearic Islands in Congress Antonia Jover (coordinator of Podemos on the islands) and Lucía Muñoz, in addition to Rafa Mayoral, and the regional parliamentarians Alejandro López, María Esperanza Sans, Antònia Martín, Cristina Mayor , Pablo Jesus Jimenez and Gloria Santiago.
