Despite having made the jump to national politics just eight months ago, Marta Lois (Vigo, 1969) has decided to leave the representation of the parliamentary group of Sumar in the Congress of Deputies to return to her homeland and lead the candidacy of confederal space in the Xunta de Galicia, controlled for 14 years by a PP that the one in Vigo finds “nervous” because they don’t “get their money’s worth”.
Why has he returned so quickly to Galicia?
More than a way back, because since the Congress of Deputies I have not stopped defending the interests of Galicians, it is an exercise in commitment. The PP brought forward the elections to try to make them go unnoticed between the end of Christmas and Carnival, which is very powerful in Galicia. Because they were a procedure. But in Sumar we are going with everything in these elections which are decisive for a change of course that is perceived on the street.
What will it depend on?
From the mobilization of the progressive vote, as it happened in the general elections in July and in the municipal elections in May. The voter has become aware of the 14 years of neglect of health and public services carried out by the PP and will come out to express themselves.
But the PP continues to lead the polls.
If Sumar enters the Galician Parliament, as the polls also predict, the PP loses its absolute majority. That’s why Alfonso Rueda (the popular candidate) is nervous. It doesn’t work out and would prefer the campaign to be short. But it will be long.
Do you fear a muddy playing field on purpose?
I see Rueda with little desire to debate. He does not want to be reflected in the lack of diligence and in the manipulation carried out by the Xunta with the pellet crisis. The Popular Party of Galicia is the clearest sign of the instrumentalization of the public media for political propaganda. This is how the Electoral Board showed it a few days ago by ordering the withdrawal of a campaign.
In the name of this mobilization, wouldn’t it have been better to have a unitary candidacy from the left?
Not necessarily. Rather than concentrating the progressive vote, what needs to be done is to expand it. But we don’t confuse ourselves with an opponent. The opponent is the Popular Party.
And what does Sumar offer the demobilized voter that the BNG or the PSOE do not?
Although Sumar is a new political force, it is a useful tool that has experience and solvency in the State Government, as evidenced by the increase in the minimum wage, the improvement in the unemployment benefit or the reduction in working hours that we expect kick off soon And now we want to put all this into practice in Galicia. Because Sumar does not want to enter Parliament simply to be there, but wants to govern. And for that what we are putting on the table are fundamental policies to make a 180 degree turn to the abandonment and paralysis of the PP.
Does it mean public services?
Indeed. The non-elected president of the Xunta, who is Mr. Rueda, is still the mere delegate of the privatization policies of public services that Alberto Núñez Feijóo has carried out all these years with the supposed reputation of a good manager that everyone has been able to verify that it is a simple chimera.
Give me an example.
One of the main problems faced by young people, working families and all those who want to start a life project and become emancipated is that of housing. This Popular Party has done nothing in fourteen years. He has not even wanted to make use of the state law that allowed him to limit the price of the rent. Well, Sumar brings to the program the commitment that, after Catalonia, Galicia will be the second community to put a stop to rent, which will limit housing for tourist use and bet on the construction of public housing.
The cuts in Health brought thousands of people to the streets in Santiago de Compostela yesterday. What solutions does Sumar propose?
Healthcare is, at this moment, in a sorry state of neglect. You have to invest bravely. That is why we are proposing a 25% increase in the health budget, but not to go to pharmaceuticals or privatisation, but to implement a rescue plan for primary care. First, to reduce the wait for an appointment to a maximum of 48 hours and to another 24 hours for an emergency. But also to take care of the health professionals who are being mistreated and forced to work in a very precarious way and with unacceptable work rates.
The talent drain does not stop and the number of young people with a university degree who leave Galicia to work has grown by 15% in two years. So black do they see the future in Galicia?
The Xunta’s inaction has led to the closure of quite a few industries in Ferrol or the Mariña de Lugo, to name just two examples. And no reconversion has occurred. For this reason, Sumar has concluded with the rector of the University of Santiago de Compostela the Recupera Talent plan to facilitate the return of 1,000 Galician researchers over the next four years. Galicia is potentially one of the best places for the promotion of renewable energy and green industry. This country does have a future.
