Schools across Madrid (the Spanish capital and its surrounding regional authority) are facing severe heat conditions, with teachers and parents reporting temperatures reaching 30°C in classrooms and warning that students are on the verge of fainting. Parent associations, public secondary school directors, and teaching staff have condemned the response of regional education councillor Mariano de Paco, accusing officials of dismissiveness toward a problem the Madrid regional government itself acknowledged last year poses "a health risk." The controversy is compounded by a decade-long pattern of flippant remarks from Madrid's ruling Partido Popular administration about heat in schools — including a suggestion that pupils could simply bring fans — highlighting the gap between official attitudes and conditions on the ground.