The PP does not want people to talk about the tragedy four years ago in the Madrid residences. This uncomfortable issue for President Isabel Díaz Ayuso was going to be discussed this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in an event by two organizations of victims’ families in a civic center of the Alcorcón City Council, governed by the socialist Candelaria Testa, but the Zonal Electoral Board (JEZ) of Madrid vetoed it after receiving a complaint from the PP against the mayor hours before. The conservative party’s brief alleges that this act violates the prohibitions prior to the European elections on June 9 by having campaign content. However, the poster does not have a symbol of any political party and the four announced participants are a jurist, an epidemiologist and two members of family associations. The PSOE of Alcorcón had published on Monday a tweet announcing the eventa promotion that the PP has highlighted in its complaint.
This is the PP’s fourth blockade in just over two months of initiatives in Madrid related to the management of the Ayuso Government during March and April 2020, when 7,291 elderly people died in residences. The first example is from March 16 of this year, when the City Council of the capital withdrew a permit that had been granted to hold a talk called Residences, this is how our elders were left to die in which the journalist Manuel Rico and two representatives of family associations were going to participate. The second case occurred on Friday, May 10, when Más Madrid had to remove two tarps with the figure 7,291 after an appeal by the PP to the JEZ of Madrid that was confirmed by the Provincial Electoral Board. This Monday there was a new blockade when the Family and Social Affairs commission of the Madrid Assembly, controlled by the PP, vetoed the scientist María Victoria Zunzunegui, who had been invited by Más Madrid to talk about residences, because she understood that this epidemiology expert was also going to talk about the events of four years ago. And the fourth paralyzed event was that of Alcorcón this Wednesday.
Despite the cancellation, about forty people remained outside the civic center this Wednesday at the time of the event. The attendees improvised a protest led by José Ángel Chamorro, secretary of Dependency Care of the PSOE of Madrid and resident of Alcorcón. Chamorro took the floor to denounce the “censorship” of the Ayuso Government: “What is happening in this Community with freedom of expression is very serious,” he told them. “They have to hide something.”
Chamorro gave way to the two speakers from the family associations, who spoke for about ten minutes before attendees who listened to them standing. “This government we have did nothing having the means at its disposal,” said Carmen Martín, a member of Verdad y Justicia. “They could have medicalized the residences, they could have taken them to the miracle hospital, to the medicalized hotels, to private hospitals, but none of this was used. They were simply left to die.”
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![Carmen Martín, member of the Truth and Justice association, speaks outside the Los Pinos civic center in Alcorcón, this Wednesday afternoon.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/A6CTEXWAWREV7GOWQ3UNPYHMZE.jpeg?auth=eedf4adde835e22b79eea8e7e3bccda61b360c8c3cf45ba9693d4cd079834da0&width=414)
Part of a tour of Madrid
Martín explained to this newspaper that the Alcorcón event was part of a tour that began on March 15 to promote the report of the Citizen Commission for the Truth in Residences, made up of a group of seven renowned experts who, at the request of the associations, investigated what happened for almost a year. That promotion began with an event at the Ateneo de Madrid and was followed by the canceled event by Villaverde and others in Getafe and Parla. They have new appointments scheduled in Torrelodones on June 1, Ciempozuelos on June 13 and Colmenar Viejo on June 26. “They are censoring everything, but we are going to go to all the municipalities that allow us,” said the member of that platform.
The poster for the Alcorcón event is titled “Presentation of the report of the commission for the truth in the residences of Madrid” and bears the logos of the Alcorcón City Council and the associations Marea de Residencias and Verdad y Justicia. It includes a photo of an elderly couple in a loving attitude, the time and place – 7:00 p.m. at the Los Pinos Civic Center – and the names of the four participants: two are members of that citizen body – the epidemiologist Zunzunegui and the lawyer Fernando Ranz – and two are spokespersons for two family associations -Carmen López, from Marea de Residencias, and Carmen Martín, from Verdad y Justicia-.
The PP presented its complaint this Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Jerónimo Escalera, manager of the Municipal Housing Company of the Madrid City Council. The document cites article 50.2 of the Electoral Regime Law (LOREG) which prohibits since the call for elections, which took place on April 16, “any act organized or financed, directly or indirectly, by public powers, that contains allusions to the achievements or achievements obtained, or that uses images that coincide or are similar to those used in their own campaigns by some of the public entities participating in the elections.”
The complaint mentions that the act uses public facilities to “undermine the image of a political adversary” and adds that it has been advertised from the account on the X network (formerly Twitter) of the PSOE of Alcorcón. That tweet says: “What happened in nursing homes during the pandemic? We will not forget the 7,291 deaths, due to the protocol of shame.”
🔴Act for Truth in the Residences of Madrid
🗓May 22
🕰7:00 p.m.
🏢Los Pinos Civic Center #AlcorcónWhat happened in nursing homes during the pandemic?
We will not forget the 7,291 deaths, due to the protocol of shame. pic.twitter.com/yP2OiwNioE
— PSOE Alcorcón/♥️ (@psoealcorcon) May 20, 2024
The letter states that this publication seeks to “publicize the party it represents and the parties with which it governs (PSOE Alcorcón, Más Madrid Alcorcón and Sumar) at a time when any campaign, act or demonstration against the Community of Madrid and more specifically against its president, Mrs. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, falls squarely within the prohibitions established for public administrations in the electoral campaign.” Due to these events, the PP requests a sanction for Mayor Testa for electoral illegality.
A spokesperson for the mayor tells EL PAÍS that they have decided not to appeal and postpone the event so as not to have the participants waiting for confirmation. However, they have presented some allegations to the JZE in which they highlight that neither the City Council nor any party is part of the citizen truth commission.
“The Popular Party has made an interpretation of the presentation act, ignoring its true purpose, perverting it by understanding that it corresponds to a violation of the rules of the LOREG,” says its brief of allegations, “the municipal government is going to proceed immediately to its suspension on the grounds that this harassing attitude of the Popular Party, which seeks to hide responsibilities for events that caused great pain in the city, will cause unnecessary tension in the affected families, moving the event to a later date, thus guaranteeing legal security. of municipal activity.
Four years later, the events of 2020 continue to occupy a prominent place in the tense Madrid political battle. In court, the families have not achieved success, but they hope to have better luck with dozens of appeals for protection presented to the Constitutional Court. On the street, the movement has gained more visibility thanks to turning the number 7,291 into a symbol. That figure comes from official data that published the digital newspaper InfoLibre. Refers to older people who died inside a residence in March and April 2020 from any cause.
President Ayuso, who has never met with family associations, had to accept the creation in July 2020 of an investigative commission in the Assembly into the events. She then governed with the need for the support of Ciudadanos and Vox, but after being strengthened in the 2021 elections she prevented that group from resuming its work. Since June of that year, Ayuso’s PP has opposed on eight occasions an investigation in the Assembly into the drama of the residences during the pandemic or a debate on how to improve the functioning of these group homes.
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