The cry of the polio patients burst into the Congress of Deputies today, in the middle of a government control session. A woman with polio was expelled from the Congress platform interrupting the plenary session of this parliamentary seat, where he denounced the lack of attention that he believes he receives from public institutions.
“We are dying!” he shouted. Victoria Ibanez from the podium to denounce the political abandonment of people affected by polio. The protest action took place this morning after ten o’clock, when the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, took the floor. After Puente finished one of his answers, from the podium, the woman raised her voice on behalf of the Platform of Boys and Girls Affected by Polio. They demand real involvement from the government. “We have been fighting for 60 years. They have stolen our childhood, our adolescence and now our old age,” he said in front of the LaSexta buses.
Ibáñez denounced the fact that polio patients have practically no right to rehabilitation, that they have difficulty working and that they receive “pity” pensions. “We are socially asking for help for something and we are also asking for compensation because I believe we deserve it. We are victims of dictatorship and democracy” he said.
Expelled from the podium, several people from the tribune of the persons concerned were waiting for her in front of the Congress. Among them, Rosa Hernandezwho in 2018 organized the same demonstration in Congress. Hernanz explained today that the Ministry of Health had promised them greater aid years ago, but said that “everything is moving very slowly” and that “many promises” have been made to them that are not being kept. “My colleagues have gone up to the plenary to demand and so that all of you and all parliamentarians can hear us at the same time, because we are tired of going door to door,” she said.
In a statement made by these people, they claim in particular to be compensated for having suffered “65 years of marginalization” and having a handicap “that has destroyed our quality and our life expectancy”. They also ask to be included in the general state budgets and to “frequent rehabilitation based on physiotherapy of advanced technology and thermal therapies.
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