In the Spanish city of Madrid, 75 percent of families are unable to find a daycare place for their children, a fact that a Spanish left-wing politician Rita Maestre is now complaining about despite years of promoting open borders.
Maestre, a councilor for far-left Más Madrid, says her daughter is unable to secure a daycare spot, but what she does not mention is that the children of illegal immigrants actually receive a distinct advantage when it comes to securing their own spots.
🇪🇸🔴A Spanish left-wing politician – who has promoted open borders for years – is complaining that her young daughter is unable to receive a daycare spot in Madrid.
Rita Maestre, councilor for far-left Más Madrid, does not mention that increasingly, the children of migrants are… pic.twitter.com/za5FkPn653
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 19, 2026In fact, illegal migrants receive extra “points” when applying to daycare simply because they are illegal migrants. They receive so many placement points that it amounts to the equivalent of their child having the same rights as a disabled child, according to Vox politician Isabel Pérez Moñino.
“In Madrid, we Spanish parents fund the daycare centers, and the illegals take the spots. Yes, yes—you heard that right. And it’s not VOX saying this; it’s stated in the official rating data published this week in Madrid,” she said, adding: “So everyone understands: being illegal scores the same as having a child with a disability. They laugh in our faces while thousands of working Spanish families wait months for a daycare spot.”
🇪🇸🔴“In Madrid, we Spanish parents fund the daycare centers, and the illegals take the spots."
In Madrid, 75% of families cannot find a daycare spot but the children of illegal immigrants are often eligible for a daycare spot first.
"So everyone understands: being illegal… pic.twitter.com/n8MYkZQHfr
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 19, 2026In some of Madrid’s central and densely populated districts – such as Arganzuela, Chamartín, and Chamberí – the admission rate plummets to a mere 10 percent, meaning 9 out of 10 children are rejected.
Remarkably, the left-wing Maestre has also been criticized for seeking a publicly subsidized daycare spot when she earns over €100,000 a year in her political role, according to El Diario. Critics are calling her another member of the “wealthy left” complaining about the conditions she has brought on her own country.
“Rita Maestre has collected 870,000 euros of public money since 2015. It must be that it seems little to her and that is why she has asked that we pay for her daughter’s daycare,” read one comment on social media.
El Diario also writes about how her policy has directly contributed to the crisis, stating: “Some have recalled that leaders like Rita Maestre have been going on for years defending open-door immigration policies and constant expansion of public services to newcomers… and now they collide with a quite simple mathematical reality: if demand increases enormously and resources are limited, competition for places also skyrockets. In some Madrid districts, according to data from reports they themselves published, more than 50 percent of the places awarded in public nursery schools have been for foreign families.”
In general, 30 percent of Madrid’s population is born abroad, but for those children ages six and under, the share of foreign-born as well as children with a foreign background is significantly higher.
It is not just daycare spots though, as Madrid is dealing with a wave of foreigners overloading the healthcare system. Madrid hospitals have treated a record number of illegal migrants, while Spaniards face worsening healthcare delays. Health authorities in Madrid report a 44 percent rise in undocumented patients in one year, while the Canary Islands prepare to receive children from Gaza despite long waiting lists for local residents
