I am Juan Lobato, I have three children, I am Susana’s husband and I want to be the president of the Community of Madrid”, he defined himself in the Assembly. State Treasury technician and former mayor of Soto del Real, Lobato (Madrid, 1984) is the current leader of the Madrid Socialists and on 28-M he is presenting himself for the first time as a candidate for the regional presidency. His aspiration is to oust Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who in the early elections of 2021 won 44.7% of the vote and is now chasing an absolute majority.

Is President Ayuso an insurmountable wall?

Absolutely not. In Madrid there is a clear majority of democrats with social convictions, which I aspire to represent. This majority exists: in the last general elections the PSOE won in Madrid. Four years ago we won the regional championships. And eight years ago we were one seat away from governing. Now, let’s all go.

So Madrid is not a conservative region?

exactly Of the ten big cities, eight have socialist mayors. Today we already govern for two million Madrid residents. And that is why we are going with all the ambition to regenerate Madrid, after these 28 years of PP governments.

The other day he starred in a rally with Pedro Sánchez in Fuenlabrada. Does Madrid’s red belt still exist?

It’s clear. We govern Móstoles, Getafe, Leganés, Alcorcón, Fuenlabrada, San Sebastián de los , Alcobendas, Parla, Pinto, Alcalá de Henares…

And how do you explain that Joaquín, now expelled from the PSOE for his alleged support for Ayuso in the last campaign, has been the first and for now the only socialist president of Madrid, and it has been 28 years?

Madrid is an absolutely dynamic region, and the PSOE has not had the ability to follow this pace, to adapt to the evolution of society and lead it. That’s what we’re trying to do now.

Ayuso is presented as a counterweight to Sánchez. Does he think that he is now looking for an absolute majority to choose to unseat Alberto Núñez Feijóo as a candidate for the presidency of the Spanish Government?

I believe it and all of Spain believes it. It’s been four years that Ayuso hasn’t left the electoral poster to devote himself to managing a single day. She has been permanently busy competing first with Pablo Casado and now with Feijóo, who came as a moderate and Ayuso has turned him into a radical. He is in permanent competition with the leaders of his party.

Ayuso built his political profile by fiercely opposing Sánchez over pandemic restrictions. He cried “freedom” and swept the ballot boxes. Once this crisis is over, can it lose strength?

Yes. 2021 was a unique time, and Ayuso took advantage of the pandemic climate. The day it was announced that there were already 800 dead, he said that for 1% he did not have to sacrifice the rest. Despite thinking that this could give electoral success, I would never have done what she did. There is no electoral victory that justifies going against the safety and health of Madrid residents.

Will the wave of public health protests affect Ayuso’s expectations?

We are already seeing it in the surveys, published and our own. For the first time, instead of getting better, we’re getting worse. Millions of families no longer have our lifelong emergency doctors. My parents, when I got sick as a child, took me to the health center in the morning. I can’t do it today with my children. The loss of quality of life is terrible. But the people of Madrid are not ready to resign.

Ayuso also captains the policy of tax reductions of the PP. Is Madrid the epicenter of fiscal dumping in Spain?

I wouldn’t call it fiscal dumping, I’m a State Treasury technician and I like to be rigorous. What Ayuso is pushing is a policy that gives away 992 million every year to 0.2% of the great fortunes, while he says that healthcare and education must irretrievably deteriorate. Irremediably not, but because of the cuts he applies for these tax gifts to those who need it least. It is his ideological model.

You have to start to regain the leadership on the left. Més Madrid overtook the PSOE in the last elections and is the main force of the opposition.

More Madrid rose very little; the problem was that the PSOE went down a lot. The 2021 elections caught us at a very bad time, before taking over from our party. But now this immense majority of fair people, of democrats with social convictions, see a party with ambition and strength and understand that Ayuso has only a possible relief. Only the PSOE, which combines sensitivity and the ability to listen and at the same time solvency and management experience, is capable of changing Madrid after 28 years.

Is the split of the left between Més Madrid and Podemos a setback for their aspirations?

The division of the non-social democratic left is glaring. Mónica García has been a representative of Podemos for more years than of More Madrid. That they are not able to go in a single candidacy with Podemos is surprising and very negative electorally.

He says that Madrid is a cannon, but that opportunities are being wasted. What would be your priority as president?

The only way to move forward is through dialogue and consensus; we must replace insults with proposals. And we need to have a regional model to aspire to. It is key to bet on education and strategic sectors. We need to break the cursed triangle, with youth unemployment higher than the Spanish average, 33,000 young people who have not been able to do vocational training this year and 51% of companies that cannot find professionals to fill the jobs they need. This is nonsense. We have presented a professional training plan to train 250,000 young people in 18 months which will create 100,000 jobs in the first two years of the legislature.

What should be the relationship between Madrid and Catalonia?

Ayuso has a way of understanding Madrid that is very different from mine. He thinks that everything in Madrid is very good and that everything outside is very bad and they are enemies. And the worse things go for Catalonia, formidable. No, Madrid must not aspire to have a competitive and conflicting leadership with the other regions, on the contrary. Madrid must aspire to have collaborative leadership in Spain. The better it goes for Catalonia, which must be a strategic ally, the better for Madrid. The better it goes to, which is the port of Madrid, the better. Or in Málaga with the startups, or in Portugal, which must be a key ally. This collaborative, intelligent leadership is what will bring more prosperity and progress to Madrid. The better it does in the rest of the regions, the better it will do in Madrid. This is the key to the future.