For the fifth consecutive year, the Residence Tide has gone out into the street in Madrid to demand a state legal framework that guarantees a dignified life for people living in social and health centers. During the march, an omnipresent number: 7,291precisely the users of residences who died in them due to covid during the worst ravages of the pandemic and those who in the Community of Madrid He denied them referral to the hospital.
The march has had the support of dozens of social, political and neighborhood organizations. On this autumn morning of fighting, there have been some 10,000 people According to the organizers, those who have taken to the streets from the Madrid City Council, in the Cibeles Square. The call ended almost two hours later, in the Gate of the Sun, where the congregants They have deposited dozens of carnations in front of the regional government headquarters as a tribute to the deceased.
Carmen Lopezspokesperson for the collective, recalls that the fight of this Tide was born even before the arrival of the devastating pandemic. “In 2019, in September, our founding assembly took place. There, users, family members of users and nursing home workers came together to demand better things, both on a professional level and in their management,” he explains right at the beginning of the demonstration.
Created with a state vocation, the Residence Tide has managed to expand to other territories of the Spanish State. To his first demand for a State Framework Law that harmonizes the social-health centers and the care provided in them, soon added that of justice, dignity and reparation for all those people who suffered the pandemic in the residences.
They ask for Ayuso’s resignation
Their activity has not stopped at street level mobilizations. The Marea de Residencias have also filed numerous complaints against directors of residences and officials of the regional government, headed then and now by Isabel Diaz Ayusofor their management of the residences during the pandemic. “7,291 These are the official deaths of people who died in March and April 2020 without hospital care in nursing homes, alone. If we count those who did refer, although in many cases they did so late, the figure increases to 9,470 people”comments López once the demonstration has started.
During the tour, chants such as ““Ayuso resigns due to his mismanagement”“they are not deaths, they are murders”, “our dead, your benefit”, “Help and advisors, tricksters and liars”, and “residence law, now!”. Numerous people have also shown banners with an image of a black crepe accompanied by the figure 7,291 and messages like “resignation” and “to remain silent is complicity.”
Many protesters have also shown a serious, somewhat saddened and sad expression. Behind each of them, a story of neglect and abandonment. López explains it from the first person: “My mother was referred to the hospital on April 5, when the residence suspected that she had been infected on March 14. After a slow and difficult agony, she was admitted to the hospital. Severo Ochoa. On May 1 he passed away.”
Carmen López: “My mother died due to an absolute lack of personnel and premeditated abandonment”
She is one of many people who cannot forget what happened, which is why they demand political and criminal responsibilities, although their demands before the courts usually end up being a setback for their struggle. “My mother died due to absolute lack of personnel and a premeditated abandonment that only those people without private health insurance suffered,” comments the spokesperson for the group. Emotional, López does not forget her mother’s last days: “She arrived at the hospital in a very bad condition and still lasted for several weeks. “If they had admitted her sooner, maybe she would still be alive.”
Some residences worse after the pandemic
From the Marea de Residencias they also denounce that these socio-health centers, instead of having improved after the crisis, have gotten worse. “They are abandoned. The people who live there and their workers suffer a tremendous precariousness and immeasurable institutional abuse“, describes López herself. Despite their attempts at dialogue with the competent institutions, they see no sign of improvement.
They also mention the call accreditation agreement like a little progress. This agreement means the establishment of a series of rules agreed at an interterritorial level between the Ministry of Social Affairs and the autonomous communities. “And it falls on deaf ears because the communities have no obligation to materialize it,” points out the spokesperson for the Marea de Residencias.
For this reason, they demand once again the approval of a mandatory state law that establishes surveillance mechanisms to ensure its correct development. “We do not want to decentralize any competition, but without a state minimum law our seniors will continue to be abandoned to the fate of investment funds that increasingly try to do business with people’s lives2, explains López. At the same time, just a few meters more Behind, a protester began to shout “they are not figures, they are people.”
Carnations to remember
At the height of the first numbers of the Alcala streetwhen there were only a few meters left to reach the headquarters of the Government of the Community of Madrid in Puerta del Sol, one of the activists has stressed to Público that they only want “a residence law that guarantees a dignified life for institutionalized people through a broad provision of resources, both human and material, and working conditions in accordance with the important work carried out by the personnel dedicated to care”, as you have read from the text disseminated by the convening group to call for participation.
La Marea de Residencias has denounced that “the privatizations carried out for decades, the commercialization of social rights, have placed the care of the most vulnerable people in the background, prioritizing the companies’ bottom line.”
In it Madrid kilometer zeroAt around 1:20 p.m., thousands of protesters stood in front of the headquarters of the regional government. The usual crowd that occurs in the epicenter of Madrid, today among tourists, lottery consumers who were patiently awaiting their turn and some Atlético de Madrid fans, have not managed to quiet the noise of the protest, which at all times has been accompanied by a batucada
On the ground, a black cloth and six red candles announced the place of the last tribute on this day of struggle. Beforehand, those present kept a minute of silence for the deceased, raising numerous carnations to the wind and causing some tears in the eyes of those gathered. In just about five minutes, around half hundred flowers They ended up on the black cloth shouting, again, “Ayuso resign.”
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