The Marea de Residencias group, which came to the European Parliament last week to demand that the mission of members of the European Parliament clarify the more than 7,200 deaths that occurred in nursing homes in the Community of Madrid during the pandemic, has this Thursday indicated its rejection of the statement. made in that session by the MEP Pablo Arias Echeverría, from the European Popular Group, who defended the management of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, during those critical first months. “The results were very poor,” the platform said.

After the Marea de Residencias representative, Carmen López, denounced “rights violations” in the centers and called for “justice and reparation”, members of the European Parliament agreed – by voting against PP and Vox – to her demand that what happened be investigated, despite Brussels’ reassurance that they would not send the mission in place. As the politicians spoke, Echevarría assured that the Community of Madrid had responded “in a certain way responsible and agile”as well as “leading the handling of the pandemic in the National Health System,” he said.

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However, Marea de Residencias wants to show with data that Echevarría’s statements are “not true” and, in this case, guarantees that Madrid “is the European region with the highest death rate” from the coronavirus, “even higher than Bergamo in Italy,” as confirmed by a report from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), which showed that the week of March 27 in the capital recorded its highest peak, with four times as many people dying as usual.

MEPs from the European Popular Group also stated in Brussels that “Madrid obtained those three months of medical supplies (PPE, masks) when no one else could,” but the citizens group recalled that the region provided , on April 1, 2020, “1.5 million contract to a company owned by Ayuso’s family friend, Sportive Priviet, in exchange for bringing 250,000 masks to Spain that arrived in Ifema on April 10.” Additionally, add Tide of Residences, the brother of the president of Madrid, Tomás Diaz Ayuso,“he asked for a fairly large commission to mediate the management of this material which turned out to be flawed.”

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The Madrid community itself confirmed this as Ayuso’s older brother received 283,000 euros through four paymentswhile maintaining that “everything was completely legal”, and then, in March this year, the European prosecutor’s office archived an investigation into these commissions considering that there was insufficient evidence of the crime of ERDF subsidy fund fraud.

Echavarría also boasted in the European Parliament that Madrid “is pioneer in water analysis” during the pandemic, although Mara de Residencias confirmed that This analysis is never used to prevent and control viruses, “both at the sample collection site, and at the residence” of the elderly. Regarding the statement made by the popular politician regarding Zendal Hospital, Assuring that it is “the largest pandemic epicenter in the world” and was built in just 100 days, the platform recalls that construction began on July 7, 2020 and when December 1 “is not over yet.” “What will happen?” If that million dollar budget was allocated to pandemic control in nursing homes?”, they ask themselves.

La Marea de Residencias also questions Echevarría’s words about the “232 residences” undergoing treatment, as he points out in his intervention, because they guarantee that “That “The medicalization of housing has never happened.” Although MEP stated that around 175,000 medications had been delivered to settlements in the region, the group stated that “in most settlements there is no oxygen and no palliative care, as well as qualified personnel to provide it.”

The platform defines as “shame protocol” measures implemented by the Government of the Community of Madrid in nursing homes and continues to denounce “vulnerability, endemic staff shortages and decades of underfunding” in these centers in the region. They also remain hopeful that their petition in Brussels to clarify the more than 7,200 deaths in such centers “remains open” following their intervention in the Petitions Committee and they assured that they will continue to fight for “justice” to be done.