A Madrid mural honouring the lives and achievements of 15 pioneering women, including Nina Simone, Rosa Parks and Frida Kahlo, has been saved from destruction after city councillors stepped in to thwart far-right attempts to have it removed.
The 60-metre (197ft) mural, emblazoned with the slogan: “Your ability doesn’t depend on your gender”, was commissioned by the local council in the Ciudad Lineal neighbourhood and painted on a sports centre wall in 2018.
Also included in the artwork are the tennis player Billie Jean King, the Red Army sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the veteran civil rights campaigner and academic Prof Angela Davis, the cosmonaut and politician Valentina Tereshkova, and the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Last Thursday, the far-right Vox party introduced a motion to have the mural removed on the grounds that it featured a “political message” and should instead be replaced with one related to sport. The motion was supported by the conservative People’s party (PP) and the centre-right Citizens party, and the local council voted to replace it with a mural honouring male and female Paralympians.
The decision angered local residents, who protested against the move on Sunday, and triggered an online petition that attracted more than 55,000 signatures.
On Tuesday, the leftwing Más Madrid party brought an urgent motion before the city council calling for the mural to be protected. The move succeeded thanks to the support of the Socialist party and the centre-right Citizens party, which reversed its stance and backed the motion.
Madrid’s deputy mayor, Citizens’ Begoña Villacís, said that while she was not a fan of the mural, she respected the wishes of others. “Our politics is about doing things, not erasing things,” said Villacís. “I want a city that’s diverse. I don’t just govern for the people who voted for me, and respecting things you don’t like comes with being deputy mayor of the city as a whole.”
Vox accused Citizens of “a lack of loyalty” to its own members, while PP said Villacís and her colleagues should have left the decision in the hands of the local council.
Jorge Nuño, a member of the Unlogic collective, which created the mural, said it was delighted by the city council’s decision.
“I think some people have had trouble understanding that the women featured in the neighbourhood mural are not there for political reasons,” he told the Guardian. “They’re all there because of their social contribution to equality and because each and every one of them fought for proper equality and a fairer society.”
Nuño said that while the collective hoped the mural would remain where it was for many years, it was in favour of another mural to commemorate Paralympians and their achievements.