Juan Marín: "The PP is going to miss us a lot"

The Vice President of the Andalusian Government and Citizens' candidate for the Board, Juan Marín, receives EL PAÍS in his office in San Telmo, the headquarters of the Executive, after having granted seven interviews in less than 14 hours since this Monday the confirmation of the date of the regional elections for July 19.

“Some tell me that I expose myself too much, but you already know me”, he justifies himself, resigned.

After three and a half years of being part of the first non-socialist government in the history of the community, in the coalition with the most stable PP in the entire territory, the leader of Cs faces a decisive campaign for the survival not only of his party at the national level, but of his as an active politician.

His strategy is to defend the liberal policies of his formation and demonstrate that it is necessary to prevent Vox from entering the Government, as has happened in Castilla y León.

"The PP is going to miss us," he warns.

Ask.

Did he feel betrayed by the Chairman of the Board, Juan Manuel Moreno, when he told him the date of June 19?

Response.

She knew that she was going to summon before the summer.

The only thing she had asked of him was that the sooner she could clear up that uncertainty, the better.

We both have a friendship and a loyalty that is bomb proof.

If not, it would have been impossible for this coalition government to have survived after everything that has happened in these three and a half years.

P.

Has your opinion been valued when setting the electoral date?

R.

I have told him exactly what I thought and that is already important.

We have had an electoral scenario in these three years that has not favored relations between the PP and national Cs at all and, even so, we have survived because we were very clear that, after 37 years, the Andalusians had decided that there had to be a change.

The PP achieved the worst result in its history and if we had not reached 21 seats we would not have been able to add enough for the PP to later convince Vox in the investiture.

Juan Marín, on Tuesday at the San Telmo Palace. PACO PUENTES (EL PAÍS)

P.

Has the greatest pressure always come from the previous direction of Genoa?

R.

It has come from many places.

But before there was a PP in Madrid that what he wanted was simply to annihilate Ciudadanos from the face of the Earth, because he thought that the enemy was Cs, and they were the wrong enemy.

They will miss us a lot.

In Castilla y León they are already missing us a lot, and in Madrid, Isabel [Díaz Ayuso], I am convinced that they do too.

And in Murcia I don't even tell him.

Because having the extreme right as a partner seems to me to be not at all comfortable for the PP at this time and that scenario has to be managed.

Without a doubt they made the wrong enemy, and in the end it is Vox that is eating the PP.

P.

Why has the PP benefited more than Cs from that encapsulation that they have achieved in Andalusia?

R.

The one who cuts the ribbons is the mayor, those of us who are in politics know it.

Q.

Does the Cs project end with you?

Could the result you get be the total end of the match?

R.

The German liberals disappeared and are now ruling four years later, right?

Nothing ends here because we have a bad result in an election.

The energy, the projects, do not end because one day things go wrong for you.

Fight for the political center

P.

You have said that Vox is eating the PP.

And the PP has eaten Cs?

R.

Our studies indicate that we have a deviation of the vote towards other political forces.

There are people from Cs who are going to vote for Vox and who are going to vote for the PP.

There are people from Ciudadanos who may have decided not to vote, but there is also another voter from the PSOE who is going to vote for Cs, and from the PP who are not going to vote because they do not want Vox in the Government.

We will see the electoral behavior on the 19th.

P.

What worries you more: that Vox enters the Andalusian Government or that the PSOE governs again?

R.

What PSOE?

That of Mr. Sánchez in Andalusia, who is the one that Mr. Espadas represents?

I have not seen him claim a euro from that Socialist Party that so much demanded a reform of the financing law or when the distribution of the distribution of European funds has been made.

Juan Marín, during the interview at the San Telmo Palace.

PACO PUENTES (THE COUNTRY)

P.

But what worries you more?

R.

I am concerned that there is a government with the extreme left or the extreme right, because the extremes do not sit well with Andalusians.

Vox only wants to govern for Vox voters, and Podemos, only for Podemos voters.

Q.

Do you think that the PSOE's time in opposition is over?

R.

No. And it's not that I believe it, it's that Juan [Espadas] believes it, when he doesn't go out to win the game.

If he had the intention of adding enough to defeat the PP or Vox, don't you think that maybe he could have talked to me?

Electoral reform so that the most voted list governs

Q.

Would you let the most voted list govern?

R.

It's enough to tease people with that.

The list with the most votes will never be able to govern if the electoral law is not reformed.

We have experienced it here with [former PP candidate Javier] Arenas and when the PSOE won the elections with 33 seats and the PP had 26 and we formed a coalition and the most voted list did not win.

Let's change the electoral law.

But neither the PP nor the PSOE are interested in that, because they have always governed with the minority.

And now more.

Now the absolute majorities are over.

Look at the blow that [Alfonso Fernández] Mañueco has hit in Castilla y León with the polls.

P.

Do you think that Moreno with the advance can also hit a bump?

R.

It is true that the situation seems to be favorable, but in an election the dice are thrown and it is not known how they are going to fall.

P.

Do you think then that in advance Moreno's electoral interests have outweighed that of the Andalusians, as he alleges?

A.

Obviously.

When you make a decision of these characteristics, you have the aspiration to continue governing.

I am of the opinion that the legislature must be exhausted, which provides security and stability.

But for that, the electoral law must be reformed, and the PP and the PSOE are not interested in that, because if not, they would stop governing.

P.

In these three years and four months they have signed three budget agreements with Vox and share a route with that party and with the PP in terms of health and educational concerts and fiscal policy.

R.

One thing is the arithmetic sum to carry out the management and another thing is to share the Government.

I have not shared any government with Vox or with the PSOE.

I supported the budgets with Susana Díaz and told her: “These are my lines”.

Another thing is that I say that the law of gender violence must be eliminated, or that the parental

[control] must be imposed.

In terms of rights, nothing.

P.

But on the economic issue, they have agreed.

R.

But it is that it is the fiscal policy that the Government has, its roadmap.

Those who agreed with this tax reduction have joined.

P.

There has always been speculation that you would end up in the PP.

R.

Except for Vox, everyone has offered me everything.

In the previous legislature, I was going to be a vice-president councilor with the PSOE.

Now that I am governing with the PP, everyone assumes that I would end up on their lists or accept a position, but I am the only one who is still here.

P.

Does the plan to present Cs as an Andalusian center project for the 19-J elections not collide with the centrist line of the party at the national level?

R.

Right now we have to focus on Andalusia because the elections are here and there is a center space, people who on other occasions have voted for the Andalusian Party and organizations that have talked about the possibility of joining us.

Because there is a center space that exists.

What happens is that the PP and the PSOE want to seize it and at the same time they are afraid of moving too far from the right or from the left.

I think it's smart and we have no choice.

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