Madrid Assembly clash: regional government and PSOE trade blows over pay, Sol Metro and strike

The regional health councillor Fátima Matute told the chamber that the government had invested 108 million euros in on-call pay, which she said made Madrid's doctors the best paid per guard in Spain. She said the increase had reached more than 60,000 staff and that 34,000 professionals had been made permanent. The PSOE rejects that picture. Its deputy Carlos Moreno Vinués argued that Madrid's health workers have the lowest purchasing power in Spain and called for more staff and resources.

The session also turned to the closure of Sol Metro station. The PSOE's Javier Guardiola said the closure was meant to keep Ayuso from hearing the protest camp in the square, and questioned why the government had acted so quickly. The housing, transport and infrastructure councillor Jorge Rodrigo replied that the five ventilation shafts had been full of urine and were unsanitary. He warned the station would close again if ammonia levels returned to the readings seen earlier, and he called the national transport minister Óscar Puente 'inculto'.

On the teachers' strike, then in its seventh day, education councillor Mercedes Zarzalejo said the walkout was holding education hostage to a political conflict. She said its demands would cost more than 280,000 students their school place. Más Madrid's Manuela Bergerot said striking teachers were dignifying public education. Answering Bergerot, Ayuso said the Puerta del Sol camp had caused losses of more than 25 million euros and that nearby shops had lost between 50 and 90% of their takings. She also said she had been escorted by the police intervention unit for weeks, and that a protest on Monday had kept her from leaving an event.