Díaz Ayuso: "I had not heard in my life that the people of Madrid think that their health is bad"

Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Madrid, 44 years old) faces the campaign with which she will try to renew the presidency of the Community of Madrid claiming her role as a voice with her own personality within the PP. Aupada to the presidency of the powerful regional formation after imposing herself in her war with Pablo Casado, warns that she will not change her speech if Alberto Núñez Feijóo arrives at La Moncloa.

Question. You have theorized that Vox arises in part because the PP stops talking clearly about certain issues. Do you feel identified with the PP of Mariano Rajoy's stage? Is it the same PP you would like to have now?

Answer. I have my own People's Party. It is a PP of a new generation that knows how to collect the best of previous stages, and with new times, a renewal. The message I believe in goes beyond hemiplegia, it is shaped around values, a way of seeing life. But it is not a PP apart from anything or anyone, and I want it for the record. Understand, it is not my PP, it is of the affiliates, the voters ... it belongs to everyone.

Q. Doesn't it invade Feijóo's terrain by constantly commenting on national affairs?

A. On the contrary, because he absolutely agrees with what I think. Mine is simply that from here to the future, openly, as I always do, head-on, I tell my party where I think things have to work so that everything in turn reverts to benefits for Madrid. It seems to me that it is now time for the national leadership to see what I think of many issues. All the presidents of the Community have had the same national discourse.

Díaz Ayuso, during the interview with EL PAÍS. Claudio Álvarez (EL PAÍS)

Q. What will remain of your speech if Feijóo arrives at La Moncloa and you cannot confront the government as you do now?

A. I would also talk about Spain, because Madrid is Spain.

Q. Will Feijóo have more than one chance to be president?

A. He always wonders: "what will the PP do if ...". But the question is: "what will the PSOE do when...". Everything indicates that the one who is going to have to go is Pedro Sánchez.

Q. Has your brother re-contracted with the Community or intermediated for one of your suppliers?

A. There isn't much newer. He is a self-employed person, who has worked 26 years in the same sector, as a commercial. He has not been contracted directly, of course, as far as I know. That is why justice proved us right. NATO and the UN failed to pronounce themselves.

Q. Is it moral to hire where a family member is in charge?

A. They are directly accusing me of having mediated for my brother, and that is false. Is it ethical for people who sell medical equipment to sell medical equipment during a pandemic? Perhaps, if they had known, they would have missed lots of great masks for everyone. Everything was legal, and it could be proven.

Q. If everything was correct, why did your brother not contract directly with the Community, being he the expert and who had access to the material, and resorted to the company of a friend?

A. It is not that the friend had experience, it is that there was no way to bring at that time batches of material from a country that acted as a real bazaar. And there had to be a person to help with contacts and logistics. As with residences, we pose the question with the eyes of the present.

Q. During the pandemic, more than 7,000 elderly people died in nursing homes and a state agreement was reached to improve quality, but his government's recent draft order has worse standards than the state ones. Why will Madrilenians have worse residences than the rest of Spaniards?

R. But what comparison are we talking about?

Q. The agreement last summer of the Government with the autonomous communities to increase the number of workers and individual rooms or reduce the size of the centers.

R. Do we know that right now there are communities that have solved this in another way? We have 50,000 residents in 500 residences with a service approved with a high grade by the vast majority of families. It is important that they have some limits of residents for each one. And a new model to reduce the units of coexistence and the total number of residents, but taking into account the geographical concentration that Madrid has.

Q. Do you put the preferences of the employers before those of the elderly?

A. Not at all. The elderly in Madrid have more and more opportunities not only to be in residences, but also in their homes. The Madrid model is not going to stay in the residences, but also in telecare and home care and in the freedom of the elderly to live where they want. Those who choose residences must continue to be given the greatest funding.

Q. If it does not achieve an absolute majority, Vox can ask it to enter the Government. Can you imagine sharing Executive with Rocío Monasterio, whom you have called "perfect doña"?

A. I don't have any personal problems. I say that it speaks with the perfection of those who do not delve into the issues and do not give an effective response to the problems they raise. Then there is the fact that I have decided that I prefer to have a government like now, stable, free, and not immersed in continuous tensions, or brakes, as I am having now for Budgets, urban developments, new deductions ... You can't be like that.

Q. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) says that 40% of Madrid households have difficulty making ends meet. What has the PP, which has governed the region since 1995, done wrong?

A. If they tell me that Spain's economic engine has done things wrong, they tell me that the whole country has done badly, and I don't believe it. We are the region with the most equal market, higher salaries, top quality service sector, better health in Europe, better transport, more affordable rates, frozen water for a few decades and a historical record of scholarships. Of course, there are still people who have many difficulties. All we always do is think about how to bring more and more social help and how not to leave anyone behind.

Q. You say that Madrid has the best health in Europe, but it is based on a report by the European Commission that referred to the health of the people of Madrid, not their health.

A. Madrid's healthcare has always been at the forefront of Europe. It serves citizens from all corners of Spain. It is the only one that operates of all transplants and allows, among other things, not only to have the longest life expectancy, butalso the lowest mortality rate in all sections from 0 to 10 and from 10 to 20 and from 20 to 30 with the most advanced therapies.

Q. But why insist on using a report that doesn't say that?

A. It's not just that report. There are many others about the quality of the service provided and its accessibility to all citizens.

Q. So do those striking doctors live in a parallel reality who warn that they do not have the hours of the day to attend to all the patients?

A. Those are labor disputes. The service provided is exceptional, because they are first-class professionals who have at their disposal the best means. There has never been investment in public health as in my government. We have gone from about 8.100 billion to almost 10 billion. And next year we will put an end to temporary employment, providing 000% of the workforce with job stability.

Q. A February poll says 45% of Madrilenians believe their health is the worst in Spain.

A. I had not heard in my life that the people of Madrid think that their health is bad. Quite the opposite. I think that labour disputes are sometimes being confused with health conflicts, and I do not think it is the same.

Q. However, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated twice since November in defence of public health.

A. That the demonstration had enormous support is clear. It is a message, and all messages must be heeded. But on a day-to-day basis, out of a workforce of 92,000 professionals [the statistical portal of personnel of the Madrid Health Service indicates that there are 78,498], strikes are being seconded by 30, 40, 50 ...

Q. The Isabel Zendal Nurse Hospital cost more than 150 million euros and, once the pandemic has passed, it is hardly useful. Were you wrong to build it?

R. How can I go wrong if we build a hospital to save lives? I do not know if life has a price, but I do know that it managed to heal thousands of people, and that, now, as a hospital of hospitals, its concept is not that of a normal one.

Q. In the four years of his Government, the percentage of Madrilenians with private insurance has gone from 34% to 38%, according to data from the insurance association Unespa. What explains this leak?

A. It's not a leak. It is a voluntary choice of citizens who prefer to have public and private health, which grows throughout Spain. It is a citizens' freedom and this helps all regions to manage more effectively. In addition, they are insurance that in other countries would be unattainable.

Díaz Ayuso, during the interview with EL PAÍS. Claudio Álvarez (EL PAÍS)

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