The rumor that Mónica García (Madrid, 1964), the leader of the opposition and Ayuso in the Madrid Assembly, would be Minister of Health had been taking shape for so long due to political lies in the capital that, if it had not crystallized, until It could have been interpreted as the first friction between Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz even before the new government coalition was launched.
But the pools have been fulfilled. And the “doctor and mother of three children with her sights set on Public Health”, as she defines herself on her social networks, will be the first minister of Más Madrid. The party founded by Manuela Carmena and Íñigo Errejón that decided to join forces with Sumar in the July general elections, maintaining, however, a high degree of autonomy within a loyalty between forces that has proven to be very solid.
García became known in social circles in 2013, within the Association of Specialist Physicians of Madrid, which ended up leading the White Tide in opposition to the privatization project of six public hospitals in Madrid under the leadership of the popular governments of Esperanza Aguirre and Ignacio. Gonzalez.
That was his first practical approach to politics. Although she had already learned something since she was little: she García is the daughter of Sergio García Reyes, a psychiatrist by training and deputy of the Communist Party in the Madrid Assembly in the mid-eighties.
Protagonist of a meteoric career, very few predicted that “the bookworm” who joined Podemos in 2015 would one day move to the political front line. Not even García herself seemed very convinced, as demonstrated by the fact that she refused to leave her job as an anesthetist at the 12 de Octubre Hospital in the capital until it was “literally impossible to make it compatible” with the leadership of the party in the run-up to the elections. 2023 elections.
He did not fail in his decision. That semi-unknown person, who during the pandemic grew as a health scourge of Isabel Díaz Ayuso almost at the same rate as the president of the Community of Madrid built the underused Zendal hospital, led Más Madrid to overrule the PSOE in the elections on the 28th. -M turning García into the leader of the opposition to the impregnable PP of Madrid to the dismay of the socialists.
“That the pandemic monopolized the political debate came in handy for him to exploit his profile as Ayuso’s nemesis by monitoring each and every one of the president’s movements with knowledge of the facts,” admit his rivals from the PSOE and the PP.
But that same wild card can become his kryptonite by holding, precisely, the Health portfolio. “We will have to return some to her” (…) “We are going to study her interventions carefully to place her in front of her mirror and supervise her for everything she promised” when, without health responsibility, she harshly charged against Ayuso, popular sources tell La Vanguardia.
His attacks on the Madrid president for not getting out of the official car will also now be wielded by the PP, who will also not hesitate to stir up the thermal bonus episode. García’s lowest moment in 2023 and which almost derailed her campaign when, after attacking the PP deputies who benefited from social aid intended for the most vulnerable despite receiving high salaries, she admitted that she also I did it. Although in his case, it was due to “not knowing that she was automatically charged” for having a large family.
But, “exonerated by the polls,” García’s team of collaborators understands that all that is a thing of the past and that the best of Mónica is yet to come, as the Spaniards will be able to see from now on.
The new Minister of Health, Mónica García, assured this Monday that she assumes her new responsibility with “the same commitment and vocation for public service” that has accompanied her “every day” of her life, and will defend health as “the flagship “of the welfare state. “At Más Madrid we have always defended healthcare not as just another public service, but as the flagship of our welfare state, which over decades has provided incontestable levels of solidarity, equity and social cohesion,” said the until now spokesperson for Más Madrid in the regional Assembly.
For García, the years of cuts and the “onslaught” of the pandemic have left the health system “touched” and the “spirit with which it was born is in its lowest hours” with “long waiting lists, overwhelmed professionals and seriously weakened primary care. Thus, she assumes the “historical responsibility” of recovering the “greatness” of healthcare: “I am going to dedicate myself to my performance as a minister with the same commitment and vocation for public service that has accompanied me every day of my life. I trust to be up to the task,” he added in statements sent to the press.
