A million people marched on Sunday, February 12, in Madrid for the defense of the region’s public health system, undermined for months by the lack of staff and resources, according to the organizers of the parade. The prefecture has counted 250,000.
The demonstrators, among whom were many members of the medical staff, found themselves in different districts of the Spanish capital, before converging on the town hall behind banners proclaiming “Health is not sold, it is defended”.
“In Spain, the public health system was very good, but in recent years it has deteriorated sharply, especially since the pandemic”lamented Ana Santamaria, a Madrid native who came to parade with a friend. “To get an appointment, you now have to wait weeks. As a result, people go to the emergency room, which is completely overwhelmed”added the latter.
“We can no longer follow”
The demonstration, organized by groups of residents, is the third large-scale in three months in the Spanish capital, following those of January 15 and November 13, which brought together 200,000 people, according to the prefecture.
It coincides with a strike started on November 21 in the capital’s hospitals at the call of the main doctors’ union in Madrid (Amyts), to demand better working conditions and salary increases.
“There are endless waiting lists. We can’t keep up”explains Maite Lopez, a nurse in the public, who is demonstrating to be “finally heard”. “The situation is dramatic, she laments. We can’t take good care of patients. »
The discontent aroused by the failures of the health system has spread in recent months to other regions of Spain, a very decentralized country where public health is the responsibility of regional authorities, but it is in Madrid that the movement is most strong.
Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid region and figure of the hard wing of the People’s Party (PP, right), has repeatedly accused the protesters of being motivated by interests “politics”.
