Hundreds of students, staff, professors and researchers gathered again this Thursday in front of the Madrid Assembly to demand sufficient funding for the region’s public universities and to protest against privatization. The demonstration, called by CCOO, UGT and CGT, among other union and student organizations, took place under the motto “let’s defend the public university.”
The final stretch of the year has been marked by growing pressure on the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso for the strangulation of higher education in the Community of Madrid. After the confrontation between the rectors of the six public universities and the Ministry of Education, the latest offer from the Executive has not been satisfactory for the Governing Councils of the six public campuses either.
On the other hand, Ayuso has closed another episode that had raised blisters among the university community by backtracking to end up accepting 169 million from the Government to hire university professors. Despite everything, some universities have already announced cuts to faculties and departments due to insufficient funding, as is the case of the Complutense University.
The unions intend to take advantage of the fact that the Budget negotiation is underway, with the debate today in the Assembly, to achieve improvements in resources that they consider “very insufficient.” Paloma López, general secretary of CCOO of Madrid, has assured in statements to elDiario.es that the budgets presented “go against public services” and has stressed that the union organizations understand that the latest offer that Ayuso has offered to the universities is not enough.
The faces of the mobilization
The protests of recent weeks have been marked by their transversality. This Thursday, teachers, students, university staff and residents came to the doors of the Madrid Assembly. Carmen Martínez, former high school teacher, explains that she attends the demonstration because all citizens “must get involved in just causes” and because the future of Madrid society depends on the quality of education.
Elsa Mohino and Marta Ábalos, teachers at the Faculty of Physical Sciences of the UCM, have attended the demonstration to demand an improvement in the conditions of the public universities of Madrid that allow students to be trained with the necessary resources. Furthermore, they assure that education is always positive for any society: “The educated people will never be defeated!”
Dozens of students from the Autonomous University of Madrid have also attended the rally in front of the Assembly to protest against the “financial and economic asphyxiation” suffered by their university and all the public faculties of the Community. In addition, they ask that the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso also stop cuts in public primary and secondary education to strengthen the entire educational system.
Martín Sagrera, a resident of the city, attended the protest today to encourage attendees not to lose steam and to continue putting pressure on the streets to achieve improvements: “We don’t want more cuts.”
Alma Sánchez and Sonia Pérez, PAS of the Complutense, wonder why the political class is so afraid of educating the people. They denounce that the cuts “come from afar” and announce that they will not stop remembering “the conditions of budgetary asphyxiation that the public has suffered for 30 years.”
An eye on the Budgets
The demonstrations in defense of the public university coincide with the negotiation of the annual Budgets and their debate in the regional plenary session. The associations assure that they will continue to demand an investment of at least 1% of the GDP and that they will put pressure until the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso “commits firmly” to public and universal education and leaves aside “privatizations”. and favors to the private sector.”
Some representatives of the Madrid PSOE and the leader of Más Madrid in the Assembly, Manuela Bergerot, have come to show their support for the demands of the university community.
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