Born on February 7, 1983, in Campoamor, Rafa Mas has returned to live in his neighborhood, between the Auditorium and Avenida de Jijona. The son of a cigarette maker and customs agent, the grandson of both Alicante natives, he comes from the trade union world, a heritage that links his mother and the demanding work of women in the cigar factory. Despite his busy schedule, he has time to share a talk with us in which there is no shortage of memories of an Alicante prior to his birth, when his father went “to spend the summer in Benalúa” or his grandfather had the tremendous experience of collecting corpses. after the bombing of the Central Market. Linked to the world of parties since he was a child, he conceives the Bonfire “as a part of the neighborhood, where community is built.”
What did you do before entering politics?
I have been working since I was ten years old. I have listed more than 25 years. Always in Alicante, except for a time when I was in Benidorm working at Terra MÃtica. I worked as an operator, a stocker, a clothes clerk… Then as an educator, as a social integrator. I have been a provincial technician for Red Cross projects, with refugees, with families. And the last work experience is as secretary of the Organization of Workers’ Commissions of the Federation of Services of the entire Province and also released as the highest representative of the Spanish Red Cross in Alicante.
Where did your interest in the trade union world come from?
Of my mother. Working woman. Cigarette in the tobacco factory. She told me how the compañeras organized themselves. We talked a lot and it stuck with me. He told me many labor anecdotes of all kinds, but the ones that stuck with me were the organization, how they were organized and how they were making progress. When they celebrated the salary increase of an agreement, we celebrated it. All of that stuck with me. And my father was also a very politicized person. My political ideology is born from the world of work, conflict and mediation.
Outside of your family, what references influenced you politically? I joined the PSOE thanks to a lady named Carmen Sánchez Brufal (former councilor of the PSOE in Alicante between 1995-2002 and from 2007 to 2011). Then many of us left the PSOE, because it was impossible; I was left an orphan of a party and CompromÃs seemed like a good formula to me. Also people like De la Casa, a trade unionist, like Óscar Llopis, or Llum Quiñonero, a very fighting woman.
Why did you decide to run for Mayor?
First, because I thought it might be useful. Second, because I have a team, we have an extraordinary team of people at CompromÃs. And it is a team that represents all sectors of society. I can say loud and clear that CompromÃs really represents what real Alicante is. We have from professors to taxi drivers, people who clean houses, people who are riders. I think I can serve this city and especially the team behind it, which really reflects what I consider Alicante to be.
During your time as opposition councilor, you have spoken a lot about the existing social gap in the city. What do you propose to decrease?
I go back to the beginning of the interview. I am a neighborhood boy, I live in Campoamor; there he eats us shit, literally. It is an area that is degrading. I am aware of other areas that are already degraded. The wheel of poverty advances when there is no public investment, when coexistence with ordinances is not guaranteed, when there is no cleanliness, security or lighting… everything is deteriorating. It is a wheel that does not stop: sunken, deteriorated, closed, poorly managed social facilities. This causes neighborhoods and areas to deteriorate. It is an oil stain that is spreading. It is not fair that depending on the zip code you have or do not have services, cleaning, security.
And what would your model be?
What we are proposing is the 15-minute city model, which is that within a radius of approximately 15 minutes, a kilometer, a kilometer and a half, we all have the essentials: a decent health center, a decent educational center; If there are no decent sports courts, an agreement with that institute or school so that the kids from the neighborhood can play…
Are you in favor of opening the centers outside school hours?
Yes, an agreement is needed to open the playgrounds, so that young people stop jumping over the fence, because sport is essential. And each zone should also have a decent cultural youth community center, and a center for the elderly with a library and Wi-Fi zone. It seems very everyday, it seems very simple, but it is essential.
Not everything is municipal competence.
I know. When I talk about education, when I talk about health, I know that it is not our responsibility. But for them to make you a school, we can demand both in Valencia and Madrid what does not correspond to us, with the idea that our city has a decent minimum, because in the end public services are what give you freedom, without equality of opportunities you are not free, if you are afraid, you are not free. If you are afraid of not having a doctor to see you tomorrow, a pain that you have, you are not free, it takes away your sleep, you are not free. And above all, freedom is also having time. You can access the services in 15 minutes. And we must strengthen local commerce, which is also a public good. Without local commerce there is no neighborhood.
You link the concept of the city for 15 minutes to a way of understanding sustainability.
Yes. In that space there must also be recreational areas, green areas. There are areas in Alicante that are so dense that they do not even comply with the WHO recommendations. For example, the Carolinas area. When cities are very dense, there must be green areas in all spaces and if there aren’t, project them on many plots that could be used as urban gardens.
There are a couple of very important issues in this and in any other purely managed city, which are cleaning and transportation, whose contracts have just been renewed for many years. I don’t know what margin that leaves for an incoming government.
The contracts must be fulfilled, but the specifications must also be fulfilled. What has occurred up to now is a relinquishment of functions on the subject of cleaning, which by the way, the new contract is not in force. What we have now is an Enrique Ortiz who continues with the extensions and we have a winner since September of last year who has not yet entered. That must be investigated, because it is a little suspicious that we are enduring the extensions of a contract when we have another successful bidder.
Speaking of contracts, the city has had several problems with works stopped or poorly executed.
It is that here absolutely nothing is reviewed and we are seeing works of terrible quality, poorly planned works, poorly designed works, without any type of identity element, and companies on the run, without warning in advance. It has happened the same as it happens with cleaning, that they do not comply and it is not sanctioned. And regarding the issue of buses, it is true that we already have a new contract, but if we enter the government we will check if it works well, if the specifications are met and improve the service. Yes, the service can be improved.
We continue with a PGOU from the 80s that everyone promised to renew and no one has done so.
For lack of political leadership. A mayor and a government team are needed that are clear about the model of the city they want. Above all, historical things must be resolved: the Central Park, the Parque road, eliminating the roads on the seafront, naturalizing and restoring the entire Alicante coast. And after that mayor stands in Valencia and Madrid to demand what corresponds to us. We have not seen the mayor here, neither in Madrid nor in Valencia. We have only seen it to rant, not to stand up. In addition, we need a mayor who is not dedicated to boycotting investments from the Generalitat.
What does it refer to specifically?
They have returned four out of 10 euros of the aid, they do not collaborate at all with the Generalitat. Ribó, the mayor of Valencia, already has 40% of the Central Park finished. We are with provisional steps. Valencia has a mayor who stands up and does not leave the ministry until he solves the Adif issue. Here the residents of the Parque del Mar, Benalúa Sur and San Gabriel area had to go to the Ministry and the mayor should have gone with them.
How do you assess the resignation of the Councilor for Social Action and Education and her move to Vox?
Julia Llopis has returned home. The policies that she has exerted on her have been aporophobic, full of hate, full of classism and she has segregated. That has not only been the fault of Llopis’s performance, she has been pampered, endorsed and supported by Barcala. I have some misgivings about the inclusion of Llopis in the regional Vox lists. What does Mr. Mazón want to do if, hopefully not, he agrees with Vox in the Generalitat? Apply those policies that Llopis has applied in Alicante? There are two models, a territory, a Community and a country that is committed to social policies that leave no one behind, or the model of Barcala, Llopis and Mazón. In short, Llopis has dedicated himself to impoverishing public education to divert students from the public to the great concerted and private, as well as blocking the Edificant Plan, investments, constructions, repairs and expansions of public schools.
And how do you assess the resignation of Councilman Manuel Jiménez?
We are before the usual PP. Manolo Jiménez has not resigned, he has not given up going on the list. He has been charged by his own party because who knows what is behind it, waiting for the mayor to appear in full and give more explanations.
Here we have had bad luck with the mayors, apart from Lassaletta, there has been a clear lack of leadership. The parties that think in Madrid and act here are very expensive for Alicante. When the PSOE governs here and in Madrid, it does not claim the infrastructure that we need. When the PP governs and the PSOE is there, crusade war. They think and decide in Madrid and Alicante is the bargaining chip. They laugh at us. PP, PSOE and, if you hurry me, Podemos. And Ciudadanos and Vox, obviously.
Alicante is experiencing a serious housing inflation problem, how do we solve it?
The first thing is to update the homes we have in the Housing Board, update the ones we have in the EVHA (Valencian Housing and Land Entity) and coordinate them; how many homes we have between the two administrations, people don’t care who they are from. Once we have that bag, open housing in two phases, one for emergency, and another for stable housing. Second, reward people who put their home up for rent. If I receive an inheritance of two or three floors, maybe one in the Carolinas, and I have a kitchen that is in bad shape, I will pay you for the reform and you in exchange give me that house for rent for four years. And I manage it. We call that a safe convertible, we have promoted it in Valencia and it is working well.
On the other hand, it is now possible to monitor the large holders of the city, to the owners of more than ten homes, progressively raise the IBI up to 50%. And an anti-eviction table – it could not be that Alicante is the only capital that does not have it – where the Generalitat, Social Action, banks and architects are. In Alicante there is no longer a long-stay offer, they are all tourist apartments. We have gone from seven licenses in 2017 to 80. One of the things we can do is, together with the regional police, inspect tourist apartments.
Will CompromÃs break its ceiling in Alicante?
We are going to do it. Because we have opened the list. The people, the social movements, want to feel identified with the political projects. And we have done it from 1 to 15. It has cost us, but we have agreed as a coalition and we have opened the list to the public.
CompromÃs was part of a tripartite that did not end well. What went wrong? Have they learned their lesson?
I was not there. I lived it as a spectator and it was a very frustrating event. I was a boy on the left who was in the trade union world and for me it was a betrayal, it was frustrating. It is true that moving a machine after twenty years of Partido Popular… The lesson would be to have more dialogue between the forces, forget about acronyms, and focus on the common objective of preventing the city from continuing to fall behind in two fundamental challenges : the fight against climate change and the fight against inequality.
