Estrella Galán: “The essence of the left is not in the brands, it is in the proposals”

Estrella Galán (Madrid, 53 years old), very critical in the campaign with the PSOE, defends Sumar’s role as the engine of social policies in the Government and advocates exporting that model to Europe. The former director of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR), with 25 years of experience in the sector and a profile that achieved the consensus of the more than seven parties that make up the coalition, is the least known of all the candidates for the European elections of 9-J.

Ask. What convinced you to take the leap into politics?

Answer. The historical context that we are going through. At a time like this it was decisive to demonstrate that women citizens also have a voice and possibilities to influence politics. Many politicians have not been on the streets for a long time, and betting on someone who comes from working with human rights, with the most vulnerable groups, provides fresh vision. And it also had to do with that advance of the extreme right that threatens my daughter, my people and a Spain that has been a beacon of progress.

Q. What explains why this extreme right sweeps popular sectors around the world?

R. It has to do with how crises have been managed. The 2008 one led to disaffection because it left many people on the margins. That crisis was managed based on men in black who arrived with cuts, with a troika that proposed rescuing the banks and not the people. From there, the emergence of populist proposals that questioned this European model and that also sounded like siren songs that would solve everything, made many disenchanted people embrace these trends. Now we must work firmly for another model in Europe. Citizens must be made to see that the more State and the more protection, the less crisis and the less tendency for populism to advance.

Q. Should Spain renounce being in the European Commission if the extreme right is part of it?

R. Parties should stop taking photos and embracing the extreme right. Spain has to be and move forward in those spaces where decisions are made. What all democratic forces should do is shield the spaces where decisions are made so that the extreme right does not advance. I am concerned about this gesture that Teresa Ribera has expressed to us from the PSOE, saying that she may take into account at a certain moment the approach to [la primera ministra italiana, Giorgia] Meloni if ​​any of its values ​​vary.

Q. They have denied that it will be like this.

R. Say it they said it. Another thing is that they later got unlucky.

Q. They advocate repealing the migration and asylum pact.

Is it feasible with the right on the rise?

R. It will have to do with the position of the social democrats, who advocated for a much more humane migration pact and have surrendered to the requests of the most reactionary countries and the right and extreme right, stating that they must resign themselves. A pact that, furthermore, leaves the southern countries in a problematic situation.

Q. Why does the PSOE celebrate it?

R. We are surprised and concerned that the PSOE came out defending this pact with the argument that it was the best possible. A PSOE that is conformed in Europe, that gives up moving forward so as not to lose that control of forces. It has also done the same with fiscal rules.

Q. Is the left cowardly when it comes to talking about immigration constructively? The speech is driven by the extreme right and everyone is slipstreaming.

R. The story must be changed. We have seen different waves of crises of people arriving in Europe, who needed protection. One was in 2016 with the exodus that took place in Syria. There the story was negative, “there are too many, they don’t fit.” The left was also not brave in pursuing a policy of open and firm reception. However, recently we have welcomed seven million people of Ukrainian origin with an absolutely positive story. When the left fails in the story, when it hides for fear of containing the reactions of the extreme right, the only thing that advances is hatred and fear.

Q. One of the budget priorities of the next Commission will be defense spending, for the first time with a specific chapter. Should the EU make up for its military dependence on Washington with greater investment in weapons?

R. Europe must be more autonomous in relation to NATO and the United States. But defense spending is sufficient and what there must be is greater harmonization and coordination of that spending. That’s where homework isn’t being done. We cannot increase arms spending without peace proposals that guarantee the end of conflicts.

Q. Are you in favor of Ukraine joining NATO?

R. We are supporters of the end of the war. From there, we will have to see what conditions Ukraine is in internally to enter or not into NATO, to enter or not into the EU.

Q. Is the EU being complicit in the conflict in Gaza?

R. The EU must take firm steps. First, to recognize the State of Palestine and, second, to stop the genocide once and for all. For us it is not a war, it is a genocide. And the EU should join South Africa’s lawsuit against Netanyahu.

R. With an increasingly protectionist US and the strength of China, how can Europe increase its competitiveness?

Q. The EU must generate its own productive space, with less dependence on third States. The just ecological transition is a golden opportunity to avoid the dependence on energy and to produce a new internal market that makes us depend much less on third parties.

Q. The Green Deal that they defend has sparked protests by ranchers and farmers throughout Europe. Are you leaving some sectors behind?

R. The unrest is legitimate, we must review the common agricultural policy, which has a level of bureaucracy that is highly difficult for many farmers, and we must harmonize these policies so that they have a place in the new transformation. We have to sit down, listen to them and generate a new agricultural production model where they are inside. It has not been possible to explain. The extreme right is instrumentalizing and manipulating them to distance them from the most progressive and environmentalist positions.

Q. Brussels has already become another battleground for national politics, with parties sometimes more busy with issues such as the amnesty or the renewal of the CGPJ than with European politics. What is your strategy going to be?

R. I come from civil society and I still have the freshness to know what people need, who are tired of institutions being used to carry out personalistic and interested politics, to manipulate and deceive. I’m not going to dive there.

The Government without Sumar would make a Page happier

Q. Sumar asks citizens to take these elections with a revalidation of 23-J. If a bad result is obtained, how can it affect the Government?

R. The coalition government without Sumar woul
d be a worse government. The coalition government without Sumar would make a happier [Emiliano García-]Page, for example, or an Iberdrola, but it would make the Spanish more unhappy. The results of 9-J are going to be the force to validate Sumar in that space that needs to make a wedge in the Government, because Sumar is the one who promotes social policies and that is the model that we want to transfer to Europe.

Q. From Podemos they denounce the inaction of the Government, you yourself call on the PSOE to govern in the campaign.

R. The coalition is taking steps thanks to what Sumar does. The PSOE is a bit missing at the moment. We ask you to act.

Q. They are being very critical of the socialists in the campaign. Are you worried about making the useful vote profitable?

R. The five days [de reflexión] of Pedro Sánchez had their effect. But we are receiving discomfort from people due to the fact that after that break there have been no concrete proposals. The vote of the left has been activated in general terms.

Q. Is Podemos a more left-wing candidacy than yours?

R. The bottle of the essence of the left is not in the brands, it is in the proposals. And Sumar is taking essential steps to change people’s lives. He has raised the minimum interprofessional wage, he has stopped the privatization of public health, he has made gestures that had been paralyzed for a long time. That is the essence of the left.

Q. Will you be in Brussels for five years?

R. From the first day I will be in Brussels. My commitment is that, I have no other mission.

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