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30,000 marchers demand end to healthcare cuts in Madrid

Tens of thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Sunday to demand an end to the cutbacks and privatisation affecting the region's crisis-hit public healthcare services.

Published: 15 January 2023 18:21 CET
30,000 marchers demand end to healthcare cuts in Madrid
This file photo from November 2022 shows the thousands of protesters who turned out in Madrid to protest against 'destructive' plans to overhaul the region's primary care system. Tens of thousands took to the capital again on Sunday to demand an end to healthcare cuts. Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP

Banging drums and chanting slogans, the protesters packed the main boulevard running past the city’s El Prado museum as part of a so-called Marea Blanca, or ‘white tide’ demonstration that drew 30,000 people, according to a regional government spokesman.

Primary care services in the Madrid area have been under huge pressure for years due to a lack of resources and staff, forcing more people to turn to hospital emergency departments which are now overwhelmed with patients in a situation with echoes across Spain.

This week, the SEMES emergency service workers association said Madrid’s A&E departments had seen a “10 to 20 percent” increase in patients while the ADSP, which also represents health professionals in Madrid, said 300 people were waiting in corridors for a bed.

READ ALSO: Thousands rally in defence of Madrid public healthcare

At the march, dozens of people held up a huge banner reading: “No to cuts and privatisation and yes to healthcare and public services”. Others held up placards demanding the resignation of the region’s right-wing leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso and saying “Healthcare cuts are a criminal act”.

“The situation in Madrid is unsustainable due to the intentional neglect and privatisation policies implemented by Ayuso and her government, the results of which can be clearly seen in the current state of emergency departments,” the ADSP this week, urging people to join the march.

“We cannot continue with an insufficient number of hospital beds, which is worsening every year with the reduction of beds in public centres and the diversion of public money to private centres.”

READ ALSO: Why the public health system in Spain’s capital is on the brink

The demonstration comes amid a wave of strikes over public healthcare shortages across Spain, with strike action planned or threatened in at least eight of its 17 regions.

In Madrid, primary care doctors and paediatricians resumed an indefinite strike on Thursday that began on November 21 but was suspended a month later for the Christmas break.

The Amyts doctors’ union said it was resuming the strike after talks with the regional healthcare ministry failed.

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MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

Spain’s PM to set date for recognition of Palestinian state on Wednesday

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Friday he will on Wednesday announce the date on which Madrid will recognise a Palestinian state along with other nations.

Published: 17 May 2024 16:24 CEST
Spain's PM to set date for recognition of Palestinian state on Wednesday

“We are in the process of coordinating with other countries,” he said during an interview with private Spanish television station La Sexta when asked if this step would be taken on Tuesday as announced by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta had agreed to take the first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Borrell told Spanish public radio last week that Spain, Ireland and Slovenia planned to symbolically recognise a Palestinian state on May 21, saying he had been given this date by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Tuesday that Dublin was certain to recognise Palestinian statehood by the end of the month but the “specific date is still fluid”.

So far, 137 of the 193 UN member states have recognised a Palestinian state, according to figures provided by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

Despite the growing number of EU countries in favour of such a move, neither France nor Germany support the idea. Western powers have long argued such recognition should only happen as part of a negotiated peace with Israel.

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