The left uses the street to mobilize the electorate in Galicia

The electoral caravan of all the left-wing parties in Galicia will make the same stop tomorrow, Sunday, Santiago de Compostela, to support a protest in defense of public health. BNG, PSOE, Sumar and Podemos will try to make profitable for themselves an appointment called weeks before the elections themselves, but which, in the middle of the campaign, could represent a fishing ground for votes that no one is willing to waste.

The 'SOS Sanidade Pública' platform announced the appointment on December 5 and had already processed the authorization for it on day 1, 20 days before the president of the Xunta de Galicia and PP candidate, Alfonso Rueda, announced the advance electoral. It was planned as one more protest organized in recent years against the health policy of the Galician Government and, however, now it promises to be one of the largest and, without a doubt, the most politicized.

The entire left is trying to exploit the social discontent due to the health situation that took root during the pandemic, taking to the streets to achieve a massive mobilization that will help them unseat the PP from the Galician Government that it has held with absolute majorities since 2009.. The social and political climate leaves a glimpse of possibilities for change with a tight majority for Alfonso Rueda and they know that only a massive mobilization of voters, especially undecided voters, can make them all gain enough seats.

Everyone sees this protest as the ideal place to channel discontent towards each person's acronym, as happened on January 21 in the massive demonstration against the tide of pellets that reached the Galician and Cantabrian coasts, which was attended by main leaders, Ana Pontón (BNG), José Ramón Gómez Besteiro (PSOE), Marta Lois and Yolanda Díaz (Sumar) and Irene Montero and Isabel Faraldo (Vamos). The entire spectrum of the left walked the streets of Santiago charging against the management of Rueda and the PP, as a kind of spoiler of what will happen again now that they are already involved in the campaign.

Already in the pre-campaign, all the parties announced that they would attend the protest and yesterday, coinciding with the start of the race for 18F, Sumar even tried to make profitable the Minister of Health, Mónica García, known for her role as an activist as spokesperson for the Association of Medical Specialists of Madrid (AFEM) during the white tides protests in defense of public health.

Mónica García visited Vigo accompanying her candidate, Marta Lois, and directly questioned the leader of the PP and former Galician president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, telling him: “These elections are about having more paediatricians or having fewer paediatricians, these elections are going to wait eight months or wait a few weeks, these choices are between being able to see your primary care doctor in two days or two weeks.

Marta Lois confirmed that Sumar “of course” supports the call, jumping on the bandwagon of a citizen protest and convinced that “on Sunday yes, the Galicians are going to denounce the lies, propaganda and lack of diligence” of the regional government. and it will mean “a call to change, a cry.”

13 measures

With this march, the organizing platform demands that the 13 necessary measures be adopted to resolve the “serious problems” of Galician health, which they attribute “without a doubt” to the “destructive mismanagement” of the Xunta de Galicia for years. In the last term, this same group presented a Popular Legislative Initiative with a historical record of more than 50,000 signatures, but, after being debated in Parliament, it was rejected with the Popular Party voting against.

Everyone has tried to channel this discontent in the pre-campaign.. The BNG candidate traveled to Moaña, in the province of Pontevedra, to support the Platform in Defense of Public Health of this municipality, which has been concentrating for 113 weeks to demand the recovery of emergencies.. From there, Ana Pontón announced one of the measures of her program in the event that she is elected president, expanding the oral health program so that in 2028, all people can go to their health center to have a cleaning, a changing parts or teeth, a filling or “everything that has to do with prevention.”

José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, leader of the PSOE, met in Santiago with representatives of SOS Sanidade Pública and announced a plan to solve “the biggest crisis in Galician health in the last 20 years”, a consequence of the “successive budget cuts of the PP”. Its promise is to guarantee primary care in 48 hours.

The attacks launched by the left did not take long to receive the reaction of the Galician Government and the PP. On the part of the Executive, its Health Minister, Julio García Comesaña, criticized that “while some of us invest in technology and the best possible treatments for patients, others invest in financing buses, banners and stages to continue discrediting public health.”

From the party, at the start of the campaign, Paula Prado, number 2 of the Galician PP, frames the Santiago demonstration as part of “manipulation by left-wing parties”. He understands that “all political forces agreed to finance this demonstration” and that “it is absolutely politicized, it is not born from the needs of the population.” Very critical of the left-wing parties, understanding that they manipulate the arguments to defend this call, she expressed her doubts that they will obtain “political benefits” from the protest.