The Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, met this Tuesday with representatives of the Civic Platform for the Support of Electricity in Cañada Real (Madrid) to analyse the situation of the more than 4,000 people in vulnerable situations, the elderly, the chronically ill and minors, who live in Cañada Real and who are facing their second winter without electricity.
The meeting was attended by Houda Akrikez, president of the Tabadol Association and neighbour of Sector 6; Miguel Martín, from the Neighbourhood Association of Sector 5; María José Sobrino, lawyer at the Centre for Advice and Social Studies (CAES); Ignacio Campoy, professor of Law at the Carlos III University, Manuel Rodríguez, secretary of Social Policies and Diversity of the trade union Comisiones Obreras Madrid, and María López de la Usada, from the Association of Female Judges of Spain.
On behalf of the institution, in addition to Ángel Gabilondo, the Ombudsman’s second deputy, Patricia Bárcena, his Director of Cabinet, Bartolomé José Martínez, and the Director of the Economy and Finance Department, Pedro Baena, were also present.
Last December, the Ombudsman urged the restoration of electricity supply “as a matter of urgency” and reiterated to all administrations involved that electricity is essential for the protection of people’s health and consequently their lives and a right recognised in article 43 of the Constitution. Furthermore, it recalled that electricity is also necessary to guarantee the right to education, which is enshrined in Article 27 of the Magna Carta, and that its absence affects the educational development of minors and their social integration.
On 11 November, the institution recommended that the Commissioner of the Government of the Community of Madrid for the Cañada Real “promote the necessary actions so that individual supply contracts can be signed for people living in sectors 5 and 6 of the Cañada Real Galiana” and “urgently promote as many measures as necessary to provide an emergency electricity supply to sector 6”.
