María Jesús Montero returned to Andalusia this Saturday. And she did so with a banner in hand. The current Vice President of the Spanish Government, Minister of Finance, and Secretary General of the Andalusian Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) is participating today in a protest in front of the Andalusian government headquarters in Seville, in defense of public healthcare. A scene that, for many, is difficult to digest.
And is that María Jesús Montero is not a newcomer to the healthcare debate. She is, in fact, one of its historical protagonists. And not precisely because she has strengthened the system.During her years as Minister of Health and later of Finance in the Andalusian Government, Montero led one of the toughest periods for public health in the communityUnder his leadership, hospital mergers were implemented that degraded care in several parts of Andalusia, resulted in the elimination of more than 7.500 jobs in the healthcare sector, and skyrocketed waiting lists for surgery and diagnostics.
The newspaper archives take their toll
That healthcare model, criticized even from within the left itself, continues to leave its mark today.In 2017, the late Dr. Jesús Candel, known as Spiriman, became a symbol of citizen protest against the deterioration of health careHe bluntly pointed to María Jesús Montero as one of those responsible for the "covert privatization" of the system, a discourse that at the time made those in power uncomfortable. Today, the same arguments that were once dismissed as exaggerated are being used by those who perpetrated them.
What was denied yesterday is waved on banners today. But the facts cannot be erased.
María Jesús Montero was part of the core of the regional Executive that applied widespread adjustments to the public hospital networkMany of the cuts were justified on the grounds of efficiency, but the consequences were evident: Entire cities saw their hospitals stop offering complete specialties., professionals reported overload and precariousness, and patients accumulated delays of months to access a consultation or an intervention.
Because for Montero, Andalusia seems to have become a weekend platform. From Monday to Friday, she serves as a minister in Madrid, and from Friday to Sunday, as a candidate in Andalusia. The contradiction becomes even more apparent when Montero It is also responsible for the regional financing model that keeps Andalusia underfunded by at least 1.500 billion euros annually.. María Jesús Montero, as Minister of Finance, has rejected any modification.
How can we demand better healthcare when the economic basis for financing it is denied? That's the question many are asking when they see her today leading a demonstration in defense of the public system. The logic of the slogan prevails over the logic of the facts.
Minister Montero: a selective memory
María Jesús Montero has returned to Andalusia with the banner under her arm and her memory conveniently trimmed. During her visit to Almería, she avoided any reference to her own time as a healthcare manager. She made no mention of the hospital mergers she herself promoted. No word about the more than 7.500 jobs lost under his leadership.No data on the waiting lists that skyrocketed while he was in charge of Health.
What he did deliver was a speech filled with bombastic phrases, as if he hadn't been part of the governments that implemented structural cuts to the Andalusian healthcare system. A photo-op intervention, with messages tailored to the headlines, but without taking responsibility for a single one of the decisions that negatively impacted the community's public health system.
Just look back: The unification of hospitals in Granada, approved during his term, sparked massive protests in the streets and a citizen movement that still clearly remembers that episode today. The platforms that emerged then remain active in many provinces, where the effects of that policy are still being felt. Healthcare professionals and patients are suffering the consequences of a management that prioritized administrative reorganization and budgetary adjustments over the quality of care.
But none of that appears in Montero's account. As if the deteriorating healthcare system were unrelated. As if Andalusia began to exist on weekends.
