Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, considered this Thursday that the Quiron Group, for which her partner is the commissioning agent, is “the best medical group in Spain”. He also criticized opponents for the fact that the medical conglomerate “has to bear the wrath” of “the government and all its poodles”. Mr. Ayuso responded with these words to Mar Espinal, the Socialist Party spokesperson in Madrid’s parliament. Minutes earlier, during a control meeting of the Madrid executive branch, Espinal accused Ayuso of having “his chief of staff and his partners” “to admit lies in court.” He was referring to their respective statements in the case against the state attorney general in the Supreme Court.
In a tough new plenary session of parliament, Mr. Ayuso accused the left of an “authoritarian project” and “parliament” that does not respect the separation of powers or the power of the press. And he directly hinted at Espinal: “You will never be a candidate, and neither will anyone who writes the Moncloa speech to run the country.” Ayuso accused both PSOE and Más Madrid of insinuating that the Quiron Group, which works with the president’s partners, is “like a dictatorship, disrespecting businesses and disrespecting employees.”
Previously, Espinal had used his turn to criticize the privatization of health care in the Madrid community. “How did you sleep today? Wasn’t it good?” he asked Ayuso. “Not many Madrid residents had to wake up at dawn to be tested in private hospitals, because if they refused the test there was a penalty of waiting for many more months,” a socialist spokesperson recalled. “Although Mrs. Ayuso does not allow public centers to open afternoon shifts due to lack of funds, she is sending Madrid residents to private hospitals for MRI scans at 5 a.m.,” he stressed.
“It seems crazy, but it’s not,” Espinal boasted. “This is a big deal because the underfunded public healthcare system needs all the evidence it needs to force Madrid residents to choose private healthcare, and they have no freedom of choice. This is blackmail so that the partners’ main customers can continue to make money,” he said flatly, alluding to Alberto González Amador, who works as a commissioned agent for the very Quiron Group. “They are not referring patients, they are referring customers, Mr. Ayuso. And they are treating the people of Madrid as if they were fools,” Espinal added.
After Mr. Ayuso gave a short response assuring him that Madrid had the “best health care” in Spain, Mr. Espinar continued the discussion, talking about “daily parties with private clubs in the attic,” which, according to a Socialist party spokesperson, “are paid for by all the residents of Madrid.” “Mr. Ayuso, you have put the community at the service of an individual who is going to sit in court for tax evasion. And the reality is stubborn, especially when there is testimony from genuine journalists, people who rely on sources,” he concluded, further referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling. “Your chief of staff and his partners have already had to admit their lies in court, and so must you. Mr. Ayuso, they are greedy. They are never satisfied. They are trying to destroy the people. They are trying to destroy democracy, because they want more and more,” he concluded.
In addition to defending Quiron Group as the “best” in Spain, Ayuso responded to Espinal: In his opinion, the left is disqualifying “judges” and “prosecutors.” “They are the most authoritarian in the history of Spanish democracy. So I say again, she is not going to be a candidate, and her boss is not going to be a candidate either. I think that’s a very good thing because the people of Madrid don’t recognize her insanity,” he stressed.
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