The decision of the Community of Madrid to install the macro-reception center for migrant minors in the industrial area of La Cantueña, located in Fuenlabrada (Madrid), a city governed by the PSOE, has led to a confrontation between the two institutions and a proposal that is, to say the least, bizarre: the socialist councilor, Francisco Ayala, has proposed that, ironically, the center be called “Isabel Díaz Ayuso”, in order to “recognize the effort” of the regional president “to guarantee by all means that this space is located in Fuenlabrada. The proposal will be presented next Thursday at the municipal plenary session by the PSOE.
Last July, Ayala already denounced that the idea of sending these children to this center, located “in the middle of nowhere and without a social plan that properly cares for these minors, promoting their inclusion”, was an “imposition” of the Community of Madrid. That same month, the regional government had already approved an investment of 18.7 million euros for the rehabilitation of La Cantueña so that it could accommodate up to 96 people.
In the PSOE motion debated this Thursday, the municipal government insists that the regional president intends to make Fuenlabrada “the only space in the region for the arrival of these minors” and that she will do so in an “isolated and massive” manner, in which the principles of equality, equity, non-discrimination, singularity and solidarity will be impossible to respect.
It will do so, the text of the motion continues, “in a space given years ago by the city council for another purpose, after the council approved the reversion of that land” and, more importantly, it will do so “unilaterally and behind the local government. They also regret that the decision was taken “without appeal, without a meeting, without information and without showing the project or its true intentions.”
The center, the text concludes, “will be the beginning (and one could say the only one) of the legacy that President Isabel Díaz Ayuso will leave to the city of Fuenlabrada.”
The PSOE also recalls that currently “three legal proceedings are open due to the unilateral decision of the community”. Two of them before the administrative courts regarding the cessation of works and the reversion of the Cantueña space, two issues approved by the City Council and appealed by the Community of Madrid. The third case, in the hands of the TSJM, is the complaint of the City Council regarding the allocation of works by emergency measures carried out by the Government of the Community of Madrid. “The three cases are awaiting judicial resolution”, warn the socialists.
The issue of this centre was already the subject of a parliamentary question last June, during the plenary session of the Assembly, by the deputy Silvia Monterrubio, who accused the PP councillor of “wanting to confuse” the issue with “lies”.
Even though the municipal motion will be passed because the socialists have an absolute majority in Fuenlabrada, they are sure that the Government Council will not accept that the centre is called Ayuso, because “it is an issue that they do not want to hear about”, except to accuse the mayor of being ‘racist’. “But that is not the point. Apart from the rush to bring the minors there by any means necessary, there has been no contact at a political level with our group, neither to present the project nor at a technical level. Our social services do not know when they expect these minors to enter, how many they will do or anything,” say sources from the PSOE municipality. The same sources regret that the centre is far from everything “on a hill surrounded by an industrial area and several roads, including the one to Toledo. In other words, it does not meet the minimum integration requirements” that these projects should have. “In reality, they do not care about the situation of minors,” they conclude.
The socialists believe that the regional government should “at least” sit down and discuss with all the municipalities concerned “to seek together the best solution for these groups of immigrant minors, in order to resolve such a complex problem.”
Madrid considers itself a “prison”
More Madrid has also harshly criticized the regional government for the projects it has implemented for these miners of La Cantueña. Last week, a delegation of deputies from this group of the Madrid Assembly went to Fuenlabrada to see on site reforms and demand that Ayuso stop the project. The spokesperson herself, Manuela Bergerot, did not hesitate to call the building a “prison.”
“The Ayuso macrocentres for these children are synonymous with isolation and overcrowding.” “They are stigmatized and locked up in polygons,” he denounced, demanding at the same time that all these shelters guarantee the “right to health, leisure, participation and integration into society.” In this sense, Más Madrid has submitted its own proposal for debate in the Madrid Assembly in which they request that “foster family centres, apartments or supervised centres” do not exceed 20 places. In short, create “more humanised spaces”.
This Monday, Bergerot, when asked about the proposal of the mayor of Fuenlabrada, insisted that the idea of giving La Cantueña the name of the president of Madrid “would be a good reason for her to assume responsibility for this macrocentre, so that it does not become a prison for children and does not have to be ashamed that her name is associated” with the latter.
In turn, the PSOE spokesman in the Madrid Assembly, Juan Lobato, joked that if “everything is Isabel” in Madrid, such as the Isabel Zendal Nursing Hospital, the Isabel II Canal or “the last Isabel La Católica school”, why not do something similar with the center for minors planned in Fuenlabrada?
