Demonstration for Women's Day, March 8, 2020 in Madrid Luis Sevillano
The UGT and CC OO unions and the two main platforms that call for mobilizations in Madrid -8M Feminist Movement and 8M Commission- have decided to appeal to justice the prohibition of the Government Delegation in Madrid, which has vetoed all the mobilizations called for the 8 -M in the region.
The only community in which the central Executive prohibits mobilizations is Madrid, also the one with the worst epidemic data (an incidence of 253 cases per 100,000 inhabitants this Thursday, still at extreme risk and above the national average, 153).
The calls for March 8 began to be massive in Madrid in 2018, when more than 170,000 people, according to the official estimate, joined the demonstration called in the capital.
Last year's call, with 120,000 participants, was highly criticized because it was held a week before the state of alarm was decreed and was not prohibited, nor were sporting events or party acts that have not been so questioned later by part of the political class, mainly the PP and Vox.
That is why part of the feminist movement and the Minister of Equality herself, Irene Montero, consider that the mobilization of women is being “criminalized”
The Secretary of Equality of UGT Madrid and spokesperson for the 8-M feminist movement of Madrid, Ana Sánchez de la Coba, during a press conference.
In video, De la Coba expresses his rejection of the veto of the March 8 demonstration in Madrid (PHOTO: EFE | VIDEO: EP)
The unions have presented the appeal jointly before the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid for violation of the fundamental right to demonstrate, "which is not restricted by the state of alarm," said Ana Sánchez de la Coba, Secretary of Equality of UGT Madrid.
"In addition, they make this decision in a community that has not even closed the bars, that they have to vacate parties on weekends, crowded transport ... It is shameful, a barrabasada," he added.
The 8M Feminist Movement platform will also appeal, convening one of the most important demonstrations that were planned for this 8-M in Madrid.
“We are going to appeal and we are going to ask for a correction.
We feel aggrieved, ”says Elena Sigüenza, spokesperson for the association.
The 8M Commission platform, the main promoter of the feminist strikes in 2018 and 2019, has also announced legal measures: "We are going to use all legal tools to get out to our squares on March 8," they say in a statement.
They announce that they will be visible on the street using “everything” that is allowed: “Go out to consume, go out to produce, go out to care, go out to study;
to dye Madrid purple ”.
The latter have requested the resignation of the Government delegate in Madrid, José Manuel Franco.
The representative of the Executive in the Community of Madrid explained Thursday that the ban is due to "public health" reasons.
Permission had been requested in the community for 104 different mobilizations.
"If we add all the attendees we could easily have more than 60,000 people moving through the different streets of Madrid," Franco said.
The organizers of the mobilizations have once again emphasized that the programmed events were "safe".
The main action of the 8M Commission was concentrations in four squares in the center of Madrid, with a capacity of 500 people, the maximum allowed.
A spokeswoman for the commission explained this Friday that there would be separation fences, that the capacity would be controlled, gel would be distributed among the participants and much attention would be paid to ensuring that no one took off their mask.
The members of 8M Movimiento Feminista proposed "a controlled concentration" in the Plaza de Callao, for which they had planned a maximum of 250 participants who had previously requested it by sending an email, following the criteria set by the Government Delegation in Madrid.
The tenth section of the contentious of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) will be the one that resolves the appeals that are presented against the decision not to authorize the demonstrations called in the capital on the occasion of 8-M.
The decision, or the decisions —because the criteria may vary according to the circumstances and guarantees of each call— will foreseeably arrive on Sunday, given the obvious time constraints.
At the moment, only the appeal of the General Labor Confederation (CGT) has been formalized before the TSJM, but in media close to the court itself it is expected that some more will be presented, reports
José María Brunet
.
Science on the ban on March 8 in Madrid: "There is never zero risk"
Madrid is the only autonomy in which for now mobilizations of 8-M are prohibited
"Unfair"
Paloma Vega, Secretary of the Organization of CC OO of Madrid, has cataloged the decision of the delegation as "a criminalization of the feminist movement" and has labeled it as "irregular".
He sees “unfair” that a single criterion has been applied when denying all the mobilizations, without taking into account that some did not intend to gather even hundreds of people: “There is a high percentage that was adjusted to the right”.
The general secretary of CC OO of Madrid, Jaime Cedrún, has said that the delegation's decision reminds him of the Franco regime: “It will be a judge who will have to tell us if we cannot demonstrate, not the delegation.
What we do not want is to convene the rallies in a large restaurant, because there we could meet in this autonomous community ”.
In the same vein, Rosa Moreno, Secretary of Organization of UGT Madrid, has pronounced: "We are outraged and very angry that absolutely all the mobilizations have been denied."
He stressed that the protests called "were completely controlled, with all security measures such as masks and distance between participants."
The unions have raised an alternative protest: that all workers leave their work centers at 12 noon on March 8 and demonstrate in front of them for between five and 10 minutes.
This protest is also called in the rest of Spain, where CC OO and UGT will hold mobilizations for International Women's Day.
Physician support for suspension
Thirteen scientific societies issued a brief statement yesterday in which they support "the prohibition of meetings that exceed current recommendations", that is, the March 8 demonstration in Madrid.
These experts consider that the epidemiological situation of the capital, with a cumulative incidence in 14 days above 200 (it is at 245.39, 42 points more than the next one, which is the Basque Country), and an ICU occupation of more 40% of patients with covid are "high risk epidemiological circumstances".
For this reason, "it seems to us obliged to avoid events that promote agglomeration and increase the risk of transmission."
The statement signed: Spanish Society of Intensive, Critical and Coronary Units Medicine (SEMICYUC)
Madrid Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (NeumoMadrid)
Society of Intensive Medicine of the community of Madrid (SOMIAMA)
Madrid Society of Anesthesia (SARMadrid)
Spanish Association of Specialists in Occupational Medicine (AEEMT)
Society of Internal Medicine of Madrid-Castilla La Mancha (SOMIMACA)
Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (national SEMES and SEMES Madrid)
Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SEGG)
Spanish Society of Pediatric Infectology (SEIP )
Madrid Society of Family and Community Medicine (SoMaMFyC)
Madrid Society of Preventive Medicine
Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC)