Pilar Alegría (La Zaida, Zaragoza, 44 years old), Minister of Education for a year, now assumes the responsibility of being the face and voice of the Executive of the PSOE for this next and crucial electoral stage.
This summer, again, she has run out of vacations, but on August 13 she faces the challenge of being the herald of her town and convincing her 450 neighbors.
Question:
Why doesn't the Prime Minister explain the reason and meaning of this remodeling that he has done in the PSOE?
Answer:
Well, I think so.
In all political parties there have always been moments of change and the change now is, on the one hand, because a political course is coming to an end and, on the other, because we are facing a new stage, a new era that will last until 2023, which is a election year.
What is sought is to continue reactivating the party, especially and to seek that reconnection with the citizenry at a difficult time.
We cannot forget what we have been through since the beginning of the legislature, dealing with difficult situations and now, with this change, a political course in which there have been important milestones has come to an end - the NATO summit, the debate on the Nation State—and now we have to face and give that march more to focus this electoral year.
Q.
But shouldn't the president explain the reasons in his party's electoral committee?
R.
The important explanations that the president has to give are the ones that really matter to the people on the street, about what the government is doing to address the situation we are experiencing since the pandemic and now with the war, and about all the project that it has in the future, because here we are also thinking of reapproving the new State Budgets.
Or how we are going to approach the presidency of the European Union in the next semester of 2023. In other words, we also have projects for the future.
Where the president has to focus, and not only the president but the entire government and the entire party, is in explaining the answers or solutions that this government is putting on the table to protect the working middle class at this very difficult time.
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Pilar Alegría, the minister who came from the Ebro to calm the waters of Education
P.
If now it is appreciated that these changes stress and give more claw to the Government, why weren't they made a year ago or even at the 40th congress of the PSOE nine months ago in Valencia?
R.
Those decisions do not correspond to me.
I have been a minister for a year and now as spokesperson for the executive, what corresponds to me is to put more intensity into the explanatory work of what we are doing.
P.
In this sense, what can you do differently from how it was being done until now?
R.
The first thing is to recognize and thank the work of my predecessors, because being a spokesperson for a party that is in government is not exempt from difficulties.
This is like a relay race and each person has their way of being and communicating.
What I have discussed with the president is to convey a message clearly, close to the real problems of the people, and sharpen empathy in a process of active listening.
P.
Along these lines, don't you think that President Pedro Sánchez is on many occasions too involved in the bubble of La Moncloa, of official events, of international summits, and that he rarely steps on the street, gas stations or supermarkets?
R.
The president has shown from the first moment in this legislature full of difficulties that he is willing to roll up his sleeves and face problems head-on, which is what is expected of a leader.
And yes, the NATO summit has been a success for the Government and the country, but last week it has been in the fires, and will continue to do so, alongside many citizens who these weeks have seen their lives, their homes and your most important belongings.
Q.
The president spoke in the federal committee without any self-criticism about “going all out, stepping on the accelerator and going out to win every election in 2023″.
How do you do that?
R.
I think that the PSOE usually does a lot of self-criticism, but now, being important to admit mistakes, it is more important to give realism to what happens.
And in the face of a legislature with pandemics, natural disasters and the war in Ukraine, our attitude is to seek realistic solutions.
Something, by the way, very different from what happened here in the last crisis, which was experienced in 2008, or what would happen if Mr. Feijóo and the PP were governing.
What we have detected in these three months of Feijóo's leadership on the right is that he is the cousin of Mariano Rajoy, but even more vague in ignorance of many contents.
Feijóo's only empathy is with the privileged.
He is outraged with the banking tax.
He raises checks for the rich while voting against protecting workers.
P.
What duties has the president assigned to his executive for this very electoral year?
R.
The PSOE knows how to win elections.
We have shown it throughout history and it is true that now there are many, especially the right and its speakers, who think that everything is won.
They are wrong.
We are going out to win.
We know how to win and we also want to win.
Let no one think that the PSOE is going to lower its arms.
I will say one thing: when the PSOE is united and in shape, we have been showing for many years that we are unstoppable.
Q.
Will there be additions of cabinet members to local candidates in May 2023?
R.
I do not know.
P.
I say this because the primary calendar has been opened and the regional ones are not that far away.
What would you like your future to be?
Because many point it out as a replacement for Javier Lambán in Aragón
R.
In Aragon we have a socialist president who won the last elections of 2019 and, as we approved in the federal committee, in the territories where we have presidents they should not go through primaries.
We will have a candidate who will be the current president.
And my future is my present, Minister of Education and one of the voices of my party.
P.
But can you say no to a president when he offers a position?
A.
It depends.
You have to listen to it and you can talk.
P.
Is governing with the maximalisms and the noise that Podemos often generates difficult and could cost them votes or will it be, in any case, inevitable?
R.
It is a first coalition government with two parties with different trajectories, but for me what is really important is not the debate or the differences that may arise and, indeed, we should lower the intensity of its decibels.
The main thing is the result.
Since we have been governing we have approved more than 150 legislative regulations and many of them absolutely fundamental: labor reform, minimum wage, minimum vital income, Vocational Training Law.
And here the governments that have given a clear sign of absolute instability have been all those that were born from the coalitions of PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, none of which have finished the Legislature.
P.
Does it bother you that Bildu supports projects that are not only social in Congress, such as the Democratic Memory Law?
A.
What bothers, annoys and angers me the most is that the PP has never put its shoulder to the wheel, nor supported any proposal from this Government in Parliament.
P.
But about Bildu, is it indifferent to you if they support a measure if it is good for the result?
R.
I am aware of the fragmentation that we have in Parliament and that, when we pass a law, we have to seek support and backing from those who represent Spanish citizens within that Chamber.
Q.
Will schoolchildren in Catalonia one day have 25% of classes in Spanish?
R.
If we refer specifically to the 25% sentence, the Government has been very clear in complying with sentences in this country, and even more so when they are final sentences, they are mandatory.
In the same way, I will say that we also have to be deeply respectful with the decisions of the Judiciary, and in this case the power belongs to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, and we respect the deadlines and times.
And, on the other hand, about the partisan use of languages, especially by the right and the PP, I think it's a deep and serious mistake.
And the important thing is that in the Education Law it is very well reflected that the kids in all the co-official language communities, from Galicia, Euskadi, Catalonia, the Valencian Community to the Balearic Islands, when they finish their compulsory education and their basic education, they will be competent in both languages.
Q.
Is giving scholarships to families with incomes over 100,000 euros constitutional?
A.
It logically breaks with the principle of redistribution.
Besides, I wouldn't call it a scholarship, I would call it a check, a check for the rich or for people who don't need it to pay for their children's studies.
This is not the proposal of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, it is that of the PP.
Improving or extending scholarships to people who are earning around 6,000 or 7,000 euros net per month is living far removed from reality.
Q
Will this government and this team finish the legislature?
I say this because there are those who speculate that there could be another adjustment for the regional and municipal elections in May.
R.
The vocation is yes.
The teams do not depend on me, but what this government is going to finish is the legislature.
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