Elena Rodriguez and Michael Gore
MADRID (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of Spanish health workers protested in Madrid on Sunday, blaming the conservative local government’s destruction of the public health system.
The Madrid government has come under fire in recent years for understaffing hospitals and primary health care centers, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Protesters claim they are dismantling the public health service and favoring private providers.
“They cut our wages instead of raising them. We are overwhelmed with work and have no support. We are endangered,” says El Moral of Madrid Lillian Ramis, 61, a woman at the health center, told Reuters.
Demonstrators filled Cibeles Square in the city center, chanting and waving flags. One demonstrator wore a giant model of right-wing Madrid regional government leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso with a Pinocchio-like nose.
Local governments in Spain, as part of the country’s devolved political system, are responsible for most of the healthcare budget.
A spokesman for the local government said 250,000 people marched through the streets of central Madrid, with nearly one million for the organizers.
Ayuso has denied accusations that her administration is dismantling the public health service in favor of the private sector.
“We all believe in public health,” she wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Thousands of health workers also demonstrated on Sunday in Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain, calling for the maintenance of public health systems. Police said 20,000 people took to the streets.
In November, tens of thousands of people marched in Madrid to support health workers seeking better working conditions.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley, Elena Rodriguez, Michael Gore and Violeta Santos; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
