The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Manual to be a councilor and not die trying

2022-11-25T13:44:41.079Z


An ex-dil from El Puerto writes a book with practical advice to dedicate himself to municipal politics, from the campaign to the resignation


The former councilor of El Puerto de Santa Maria (Cádiz) Ángel Quintana Fernández with his book in the Cabildo square in Jerez de la Frontera."JUAN CARLOS TORO"

Ángel Quintana's first contact as a councilor for his city, El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), was face-first and without anesthesia.

A few days before he took office on June 13, 2015, the City Council sent for him to call the public institute where he worked as a teacher.

“I went from teaching Prehistory classes to seeing myself surrounded by several angry lifeguards because their specifications were not signed, a few days before the beach season began,” he recalls.

The architect of the local PSOE campaign had thought in such detail how to conquer the Mayor's Office for his boss, David de la Encina, that he had not even stopped to think what the days immediately following his achievement would be like.

Quintana did not know it yet, but with that shock he began to treasure the first of many experiences with which he has now been able to build

Local politics.

Guide for electoral campaigns and municipal governance

(Mirahadas, 2022).

“He could perfectly have called it

How to be a councilor and not die trying,

but I wanted to give it a more serious tone”, confesses this graduate in History from Porto with a laugh.

In fact, it is just what Quintana has sought with a work that emerged from participant observation.

His advice on how to develop the campaign, the geometry of the pacts, the way to write a motion to the plenary session, the resignations to family life and even the types of officials that one can find —classified as an imaginary “loving” jungle— they start from what he himself experienced between June 2015 and September 2018. "I went through eight councilors in that time, such as Tourism, Fiestas, Urbanism and I was president of Impulsa [a municipal company]", summarizes the ex-dil about a political career that he himself decided to end with a resignation.

And even that final step is included in the book:

More information

The 'annus horribilis' of El Puerto de Santa María

Quintana confesses that all those experiences, including the resignation itself, were a process full of successes and setbacks without a previous handle to hold on to.

"Local politics is not even studied, just in its practical facet, in the faculties," the professor complains.

The experience of El Puerto is valid for him "since it is a Spanish-type town, in that it is medium-sized, with around 90,000 inhabitants."

For those 400 linear kilometers of streets —knowledge acquired from his time in Urbanism—, the then campaign manager took his candidate from door to door through the houses.

From there he learned that hand-to-hand with the neighbor is key and that, when giving away

merchandising

, it is better to opt for pens, pillboxes or supermarket cart tokens, a "success artifact".

Although above all Quintana deduced that there are three types of politicians: "Those who seek a personal interest, those who have an excessive ego and those who have a vocation."

Of all of them, the former councilor repudiates those first who seek their mere survival and do not aspire only to go through "for a temporary and passing job."

Posts to classify, the new high school teacher today finds an imaginary type of officials, inspired by the animal kingdom: the "ant" —of "extreme dedication"—, the "wolf" — "territorial" and not very cooperative with the politician —, the “lion” —“the king of the jungle”, respected among his own— or the “lazy” —those who “simply do little”—.

"It is not something pejorative, but it is the casuistry that you find", justifies the portuense.

The man who was the third deputy mayor remembers bitter episodes, such as the criminal complaint filed against him by a businessman —from which he was acquitted two years later—, just when he was on his honeymoon in Japan.

“Because it is important to know that one is a councilor even when he is on vacation”, as he warns.

Or the suffering caused to his mother by the criticism they made of him.

"You have to put on a strong armor to resist criticism and that people's problems do not affect you personally," Quintana points out.

Even so, he acknowledges that the family and personal affectation was so strong that, finally, he chose to resign, just at the beginning of the course that led to the 2019 elections (in which the PP came out, after agreeing with Ciudadanos).

"Resigning was the most beautiful and transcendental decision I made," recalls Quintana.

And, for this reason, he has dedicated a final chapter to it,

Arts resigning or The art of resigning

, in which he recommends that, once the decision is made, move forward whenever, "since it will never be a good time to do it" .

The boss's loss of confidence in him, not being able to contribute more than personal worth, the inconsistency between values ​​and party discipline or internal party pressures are some of the causes that the former councilor lists as good reasons to step aside.

"You will feel a sensation of sublime liberation, of tranquility and that you have done the right thing at the right time," says the manual, as a conclusion to the discernment of leaving.

Despite this, Quintana assures that his work arises from the need to encourage vocational politicians to embark on this task and that they have the weapons that he did not have when he took the step.

“I recommend that you do it.

That they be councilors, but that they do it with clear things ”, points out the exedil, already disassociated from active politics and the PSOE and that, for now, he is not considering returning.

“I do not regret everything I have lived.

For me it was a master's degree and a doctorate and today my classes at the institute are richer thanks to that stage”, Quintana concludes proudly.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-11-25

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.