Iñigo Errejón (Madrid, 37 years old) has achieved something that is not easy for a deputy who occupies a seat in the henhouse of Congress.
There is not a week that the leader of Más País, with three seats - one of them from Compromís, with whom he ran in coalition - is not news for any of his interventions.
He is one of the favorite politicians on television and it is rare the day that he does not go live on a network.
That is why his absence stood out so much ten days ago when everyone went looking for him.
The leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, had just announced his candidacy for the elections to the Community of Madrid on May 4 and his intention to lead a coalition with Más Madrid, founded by Errejón and Manuela Carmena.
But Errejón took refuge in a silence, very unusual for him, to relaunch his own candidate, Mónica García.
The strategy worked: García's knowledge has skyrocketed while Errejón continues to set the media agenda in the Cortes, the last with his question on mental health during a recent government control session.
Pablo Iglesias leaves the Government to be a candidate in Madrid and offers Errejón a common front
El no de Más Madrid a unitary list with Iglesias resurrects the eternal battle between the two founders of Podemos, Iglesias and Errejón, although the latter avoids entering the rag.
Convinced that the division of forces can attract more votes, he ignores the voices calling for a left-wing coalition to defeat Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The conversation takes place in his office in Congress this week.
Question.
To what extent has the situation for Más Madrid changed the candidacy of Iglesias?
Answer.
It was a surprise, as it is for everyone, and I think it has cleared up one of the dangers that existed for the possibility of a progressive government alternative, which was that United We could not exceed 5%.
With this candidacy I believe that it is assured.
Q.
And what do you think of Iglesias' decision?
R.
In what helps to add, welcome.
P.
Do you fear the
sorpasso
of UP?
R.
There is no poll that is giving that, but these elections are not a competition between progressive forces.
To approach them like this would be a mistake.
These elections are a competition between the irresponsibility and fanaticism of Ayuso and the possibility that there is an alternative for which we all need each other.
Q.
Have you spoken with Pablo Iglesias since he announced the candidacy?
A.
No. I know that it has been possible to generate curiosity to tell that this was a matter of two gentlemen locking themselves in a room and understanding each other.
But our candidate is Mónica García, she is the one who has to speak.
And up there.
P.
At first it seemed that there was going to be a confluence, but the next day it was decided not to.
What happened?
R.
Monica has maintained what we have always maintained: we are open to talk and cooperate with everyone.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, was elected by two votes and we lent them our three votes and we have been a loyal partner.
In June 2019 we offered an agreement to the Socialist Party, Ciudadanos and Unidas Podemos in Madrid.
It would have been better for Madrid.
And surely if they had taken that path, Ciudadanos today would not be in the process of decomposition.
But we are our own political space.
That is what Monica clearly expressed.
In addition, he claimed that this job, having been in Madrid breaking stone and representing that there was a possible alternative to Ayuso, had to reach the polls.
Q.
Do you think a former Citizen voter could vote for you?
R.
Hopefully.
I hope that some of the people who have voted for Ciudadanos, who believed that they were not going to hand over the direction of the Government of Madrid to the ultras and who today look for an alternative, can look at us.
Although there are things that we will not agree on.
P.
Gabilondo has vetoed Iglesias.
Would you also prefer to agree before with the PSOE than with United We Can?
R.
We have agreed with both in the Government of Spain.
And when it was necessary in Madrid, we have been willing to agree with everyone so that there would be a decent government.
We would sit with everyone.
Q.
What is the fault of the left-wing parties that the right always governs in Madrid?
R.
Madrid is a region that is broken by inequality.
This has often led to a certain feeling of cynicism.
We need an innovation left that is looking to the future and not back.
When we are able to present that in exciting terms, not paying as much attention to labels, as was done with the mayor of Manuela Carmena, we have won.
And I think the best candidate to put that on the table is Monica.
The elections in Madrid are chosen by the people who have the most difficult lives and who vote less.
If those people go to vote, we win.
Q.
You have proposed that May 4 be a holiday.
Has the Government picked up the glove?
R.
It would be good for health, conciliation and democratic reasons.
If it is a non-school day in schools, but at the same time it is a work day, families are going to have to juggle.
We are still in a state of alarm and the national government could guarantee that it is a public holiday.
I hope your pulse doesn't shake.
Íñigo Errejón, last Thursday in the Congress of Deputies.
Alvaro Garcia
P. You
talk a lot about Ayuso's mistakes, but the polls give him a comfortable victory.
Have you had any successes?
R.
Ayuso has been much more concerned with the Popular Party and the polls than with the people of Madrid.
It has not mattered to him that Madrid systematically leads the worst data in infections and deaths.
He has assumed that as part of a strategy: blame others and always go against any recommendation of the experts.
When you have been in the campaign for a year, then maybe you have an advantage.
Ayuso has not governed and now forces Madrilenians to go to elections that were not necessary to aspire to change partners, from Citizens to Vox.
The people of Madrid don't want that and I think they are going to turn their back on that project.
Q.
What do you think of Yolanda Díaz?
R. He
is playing a good role as Minister of Labor and now I imagine that he will transfer him as Third Vice President of the Government.
Q.
Do you see her as the leader of United We Can?
R.
It is a question that they have to ask the politicians of United We Can.
Q.
Do you think Podemos will survive Pablo Iglesias?
R.
I think that United We can long ago decided a course that is very similar to the traditional position that the United Left has always had and I believe that there is a space for that in Spanish politics.
Q.
Do you regret how you left Podemos?
R.
They threw me out.
I proposed that we do something very similar to what there was in Barcelona, which was a very broad platform in which we all cooperated, and I don't know why it was possible there and not in Madrid.
To express things like the questions of reducing working hours or climate change or mental health I have had to move, as has happened to almost everyone from the beginning.
We represent two different political spaces.
That does not mean that all the times it has been necessary to agree, we have.
Q.
Do you think that if you had been the UP candidate in the 2019 regional elections, you would have won the elections?
R.
Nobody believed in that candidacy within what was then my political background.
We did nothing better than to form a tandem with Manuela Carmena.
Q.
Does More Country have a future?
R.
I believe that we are called to occupy a political space similar to the space occupied by the rest of the green forces in Europe.
We have started from the bottom, but I believe that seldom does a political force with a modest parliamentary presence place so many debates in the national discussion.
We intend to represent in Spain a green political force, feminist, of social justice and democratic radicalism.
The left in terms of the future.
We will surely do it with other forces with great concern for the land, for the territory.
P.
With Anticapitalistas in Andalusia, for example?
R.
I have had some differences in the past with Teresa Rodríguez, but she is a person of one piece and noble in politics, who does not lie.
I think that a small wave of progressive Andalusianism is brewing in Andalusia that we would love to be part of.
Q.
What housing law would you support in Congress?
R.
One that regulates rental prices.
A policy that stimulates homeowners a little more has already been put in place in Spain, and that is not enough.
I think the Socialist Party is wrong not to be brave in that.
Q.
Do you believe, like Podemos, that there was a crime in the failed motion of Murcia?
A.
Placing someone in counseling in exchange for a vote I suspect is not illegal, but it is immoral.
In my opinion, that is buying votes and it does not say anything good about the person who is sold or the one who buys them.
It gives the feeling that the PP is buying like pieces of balance from a decomposing thing.
If that is legally punishable, a judge has to say it, but I am absolutely certain that it is morally punishable.