*Mobilization arrived at the Assembly of Madrid during approval of accounts 2025
*Madrid has thirteen private universities compared to six public ones
*Students raise their voices in rejection of law that seeks to limit organizational capacity
*Universities face a bleak outlook
*Madrid struggles between a growing privatization model and the defense of accessible education
*Madrid has thirteen private universities compared to six public ones
*Students raise their voices in rejection of law that seeks to limit organizational capacity
*Universities face a bleak outlook
*Madrid struggles between a growing privatization model and the defense of accessible education
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NewsTranscript
00:00And in Spain, the autonomous community of Madrid is experiencing a wave of mobilizations
00:05where rectors, professors and students from public universities denounce an unsustainable
00:10situation due to the lack of funding resulting from the budgetary management of community
00:15president Isabel Ayuso.
00:16Let's see.
00:19The community of Madrid has six public universities that serve tens of thousands of students.
00:25However, the regional budgets for 2025 propose an increase of only 47.3 million euros, far
00:32from the 200 million that the rectors consider necessary to reverse the underfunding accumulated
00:38over the last 15 years.
00:41Isabel Ayuso is at war with the public universities.
00:43She's advocating us at the budget level with an underfunding of more than 35 in the last
00:4715 years.
00:51The protests have reached the gates of the Assembly of Madrid on the day Ayuso used his
00:55absolute majority to approve the accounts for 2025.
00:59The protesters denounced the use of public universities as a weapon against the government.
01:04Worse, they now have in their hands a lot of universities that is an open war with the
01:08central government in which a public university of Madrid is going to pay for their program.
01:12We cannot accept it.
01:14In Madrid, there are already 13 private universities compared to the six public ones.
01:20And the precariousness denounced by the central government affects all staff.
01:25As you know, we have a problem in the public universities of our country of temporary and
01:30precarious contracts.
01:32In the university, it is practically 50 percent.
01:35One out of every two professors in the public universities of our country has a precarious
01:40and temporary contract.
01:45Students also raise their voices.
01:47A new law promoted by the community of Madrid threatens to limit the organizational capacity
01:52of the student movement.
01:54Just after the students led camps in solidarity with Palestine and questioned the links of
01:58universities with companies that support the Zionist state of Israel.
02:03The law is a serious repression of the student movement.
02:06It is no coincidence that this law was passed just after the Palestinian protests.
02:11They clearly want to repress the student movement that has been demonstrating in defense of
02:15Palestine and against the relations of our universities with companies that finance the
02:20genocide that Israel commits.
02:23Meanwhile, the universities face a bleak outlook.
02:28The six rectors have issued a joint statement denouncing that the regional budget does not
02:33guarantee the sustainability of public universities after more than a decade of neglect.
02:38Ayuso, aware of the importance of the cultural battle, attacks those who defend public education.
02:46With the case of the Complutense, they are so interested in the public university, in
02:50public education, and they are doing the same as with feminism, as with all institutions,
02:55colonizing it to use it in their service.
03:01With the budget crisis threatening the future of public education at all levels, the community
03:06of Madrid is experiencing a conflict between a growing privatization model and the defense
03:12of accessible education, mobilizations of the entire educational community promise to
03:17mark the coming weeks.