Thousands of Madrid residents take to the streets to defend public health care.

BarcelonaMadrid was filled this Sunday with thousands of people protesting against the Community of Madrid's health policy. According to data from the Government Delegation, nearly 30,000 people took to the streets to demand more public and better-funded healthcare, while also denouncing the "dismantling" of primary care carried out by Madrid's president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the focus of this Sunday's march. A large doll with Ayuso's face, wrapped in the word "guilty" prominently, was one of the main attractions of the protest.

Four columns of protesters converged on Cibeles Square, where the organizing platform "Neighbors of the Neighborhoods and Towns of the Community of Madrid" read a manifesto full of complaints against the regional government. "Overworked staff, neglected mental health, and unbearable delays in primary care," listed the organizers, who highlighted some of the major problems facing Madrid's healthcare system in recent years.

According to their estimates, one million Madrid residents are on waiting lists and "tens of thousands of children without an assigned pediatrician." One of the most repeated slogans during the march was the privatization of the healthcare model implemented by the People's Party (PP), which, according to Ricardo Chacón, a member of the platform, "is not working" and in no way "seeks the benefit" of the patient.

Left-wing parties also joined the mobilization. In this regard, Podemos MEP Irene Montero criticized the fact that Madrid's public healthcare system is in a "critical" situation, with thousands of families "without a pediatrician" and "the Ayuso family and large business groups, such as the Quirón Group, who are profiting from the right to health." Montero emphasized the ties between the regional president and the business group: "I want to remind you that the Quirón Group has quadrupled its payments to Ms. Ayuso's partner since they became a couple."