María Jesús Montero (Seville 1966) left the vice presidency of the Government to fight in the battle of Andalusia against Juanma Moreno, president of the Junta and leader of the PP in this community for the last eight years.
Read more Aitana Bonmatí and Alexia Putellas, the most human face of two icons of Barcelonism
Why have you returned to Andalusia?
I have never left Andalusia. I left my family here, my daughters, my partner and my mother and I went alone to participate in a project as exciting as Pedro Sánchez’s first government. I returned home whenever I could although the schedule was complicated. But I have always worked for Andalusia, no matter where I have been, now as a candidate and before as Minister of Finance, always.
However, it gives the impression that you have returned because the secretary general of your party, Pedro Sánchez, decided so.
That is not true. When the debate opened in my party about the need for a change of leadership in Andalusia, people thought of me to lead this stage. Never, ever, can President Sánchez or the secretary general impose anything on Andalusia, because Andalusia is not a territory that allows imposition.
You are still a deputy in Congress. It seems contradictory or a lack of confidence. Why have you not resigned your seat?
It is very simple. I am a civil servant and I do not want to lose my position.
Degree in Medicine
I have no problem talking about résumés, including that of the current president
Explain this because it is not understood that way.
Well. When one is a candidate of a political party, one only has one paid leave, there is no job reservation as with a representative position, which does have it. If I resign now from my seat in Congress I would have to return to the Virgen del Rocío hospital or I would lose the position I earned when I was… I don’t know, I must have been 25 or 26 years old. It is that simple.
Your opponents say that is a lie.
I am interested in answering this question because it seems to me an example of the PP’s dehumanization campaigns; it is a shredder of people. It has even been said that I am not a doctor. Look, it is simple: go to the University of Seville and ask. And, besides, if someone wants us to talk about résumés I have no problem talking about it, including Moreno Bonilla’s.
The PP model
Moreno Bonilla is dismantling and privatizing public services
The slogan of your campaign is “defend the public”. Healthcare has become the biggest headache for Andalusians, far above the Spanish average. What happened?
Moreno Bonilla has followed exactly the roadmap of dismantling and privatizing public services from other countries. First they tell you the system is not sustainable because it consumes a volume of resources that society cannot afford and then the system’s deterioration begins, which produces a citizen’s detachment from the public system that, in the end, moves to the private sector. Look, the previous Health minister said it very clearly: ‘my obligation is to guarantee a health system for those who cannot pay for it’.
But that message is convincing. The number of private policies keeps growing in Andalusia.
Of course, that is the result of those policies. Look, in Andalusia a middle class has grown because there are public services that prevent you from having to allocate a large part of your salary to your children’s education, to pay for a private university, vocational training or health. It is not just about social justice. Public services not only appeal to social justice, public services go directly to the heart of the economic dynamism of a part of society. Public healthcare is not a policy aimed only at the most vulnerable. It is a policy aimed at a very broad middle class that exists in Andalusia, which will become impoverished if it disappears and with Moreno Bonilla that is at risk.
I believe we will not finally see Salvador Illa in the campaign defending public healthcare and, by the way, a fair financing system for Catalonia.
Read more Sir Keir Starmer, a slow-motion Labour death
I wanted Salvador to come and he also wanted to be here, but in the end it was not possible due to the campaign date dynamics.
How much do the agreements you negotiated as vice president of the Government with Junts and Esquerra weigh on you as a candidate?
The far right
Vox’s policies, to a greater or lesser extent, are already applied in Andalusia
I would say that the vision they want to project of the relationship between Spain and Catalonia is very short-sighted. That there is a territory that has greater initiative, that has led throughout our democratic history to achievements in self-government… sometimes we forget that Andalusia is also an example of that. February 28 [1980, when Andalusia held the referendum to access autonomy by the same constitutional route as Catalonia]. Everything that has been achieved for Catalonia can be perfectly reached and enjoyed by Andalusia. The financing model is a clear example.
However, a large majority of Andalusians think it is unsupportive.
Financing model
“Some prefer to perpetuate confrontation and thus avoid accountability”
There are those who feel more comfortable being against someone. Some long to be there in permanent confrontation. What they want is to perpetuate a situation in which they do not give account because there is always an external enemy to blame.
In this campaign we have hardly heard you talk about Vox and its idea of national priority. We would like to hear your opinion.
In reality, the policies that Vox is agreeing on in other territories, to a greater or lesser extent, are already experienced in Andalusia. For example, we do not have in our land a plan to fight gender violence or a comprehensive equality plan. Moreno Bonilla has been promising it for eight years but it has not been done. He rejects unaccompanied minors and regularization, in a community where agriculture, construction, and hospitality have great weight, the three sectors where this workforce is needed.
In the event of a possible loss of the PP’s absolute majority, would the Socialist Party be willing to reach an agreement with the PP to avoid seeing Vox in the Andalusian Junta?
If the question is whether the Socialist Party would participate in a privatizing strategy of public services in Andalusia, a discriminatory policy against people because of their race or because they are children who arrived under different conditions than those born in Andalusia, literally, the answer is a resounding no. We do not participate in that social project, we are the alternative and, therefore, in these elections it is about choosing whether one prefers a society of equal opportunities or to do business with what belongs to everyone.
Last question, what do you think of the accusations Aldama made in his statement before the Supreme Court?
I am not so worried about those accusations without any proof as about the threat they represent. How the right-wing media echo this and play with your reputation, with your credibility, with your own person and they do not care a bit about your dignity, simply because you are a political rival. It is very serious and I think people like that constitute a threat to everyone. One day they come for one and the next day they will come for more, for anyone who is progressive.
Read more SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI will go public without being profitable
