Irene Montero: “ Podemos is getting back on its feet”

Ten years after ringing the bell in the European elections, the former Minister of Equality Irene Montero (Madrid, 36 years old) now carries the weight of the Podemos candidacy. The formation, which is staking its future on 9-J, has made the defense of peace the axis of the campaign. In this interview, held last Friday at the party’s headquarters, she claims the need to “put the left on its feet” and the work of the previous coalition: “Many people miss the PSOE and Podemos Government.”

Ask. What is Europe at stake in these elections?

Answer. Continue being a war branch serving US military interests or being a peace power. And peace also implies that Europe can advance in feminist rights, in social and fiscal justice and in the fight against the climate emergency. It is not only that thousands of innocent people die, there are going to be cuts that the European Commission has already approved, which imply 15,000 million euros for Spain. And the war is also going to be the excuse for this great coalition to incorporate anti-abortionists, those who deny climate change and those who deny violence against women into the command center of Europe.

Q. Podemos is against the shipment of weapons to Ukraine and calls for redoubling diplomatic efforts. How do you talk to Putin?

R. With peace agreements, with negotiations that, no matter how long and difficult, allow peace. In the end, people have to ask themselves what purpose the escalation of war is serving. Only to prolong the war, not to change the correlation of forces and it can also end in direct confrontation between nuclear powers.

Q. They criticize the EU’s double standards in Ukraine regarding Palestine. Why don’t they ask for the suspension of diplomatic relations with Russia?

R. In the case of Israel, it is the only effective way to stop Netanyahu and prevent him from continuing to massacre the Palestinian people. If we have been able to break diplomatic relations with Argentina due to some insults from President Milei that are repugnant, how after seven months are we not capable of breaking diplomatic relations with a genocidal State? Europe has acted against Putin and has not acted against Netanyahu.

Q. But you are not asking to suspend diplomatic relations with Russia.

R. Europe is already doing that. However, if Europe, the United States and Spain are not able to stop the genocide in Palestine, what are we going to tell the following generations?

Q. It is not just an EU phenomenon. In Argentina, Milei; Trump can return in the US… Why is the extreme right appropriating the protest vote around the world?

R. Because they have many centers of power from which to normalize and legitimize positions that are contrary to human rights and because social democracy in Europe is accepting their policies. Europe has just approved a migration pact concluded by the PSOE and European social democracy that is a violation of the rights of migrants. Social democracy, which says its objective is to stop the extreme right, is willing to share the European Commission with it. He is whitewashing the great warmongering coalition.

Q. They say that the right and the extreme right have their rights, so why hasn’t the agenda promoted in the previous legislature, with you in the Government, served to stop the rise of these forces in Spain?

R. Of course it has served. That in the last legislature we approved three feminist laws, renewed the State pact against gender violence, a housing law, a tax on large fortunes or that we would bump The price of gas has helped people live better in Spain. But whenever there is an advance in rights, there is a reaction. And what we see now with the amnesty law, where the reactionary judicial party is organizing to disobey a democratic decision made at the seat of popular sovereignty, certain progressive sectors did not see it so clearly when that reaction was a sexist reaction against of the right to sexual freedom. With the law of only yes is yes, The PSOE broke the unity of the democratic bloc and agreed with the PP.

Q. What fuels a candidacy like that of Alvise Pérez, with options to enter the European Parliament?

R. In Spain there are many gatherings, media covers, that for hours normalize this discourse of the extreme right. On Monday [pasado] We experienced a situation of harassment and fascist violence at the doors of the courts and the PP came out saying: “He who sows winds, reaps storms.” And there is another decisive factor, which is the inaction of social democracy in Spain.

Q. With the correlation of forces projected in the European Parliament, is it viable to change the migration model?

R. If necessary, it is possible. What is left over in Spain are not people who come looking for a better life, but speculative vultures and large corporations that are extracting wealth from families. It is necessary to repeal the migration and asylum pact, clarify what European funds are being used for, stop paying third countries externalizing our borders so that they put the lives of people who are migrating at risk and be able to have a large company public life and a public maritime rescue service that prevents people from dying on these migratory routes.

Q. What differentiates your European model from that of Sumar?

R. Podemos is a political force that never puts itself in profile, that can proudly say that it does not have to regret not having supported a colleague when the extreme right or reactionary sectors attack someone. It is a political force that vindicates noise, that believes that silence is complicit in injustices, inequalities and aggressors and that does not wait to see which way the wind blows. Podemos is a force that does politics without hypocrisy.

Q. Are these elections the primaries that Sumar did not grant a few months ago?

R. Obviously, these elections also have a Spanish reading, a translation in the weight that the left has to have. They are enormously political and ideological. The left in Spain has to stand up.

Q. Can we risk their survival?

R. Podemos has a lot at stake in these elections. Podemos is rising and getting back on its feet and there are many people who miss a coalition government between the PSOE and Podemos. We have exchanged a transformational Government for one that is incapable of changing a single thing.

Q. He closed the door this week on a coalition with Sumar. Is there room for both forces in the Spanish political landscape?

R. We have turned the page. The political task we have at this moment is not about the forms of organization of the left, it is about what is capable of continuing to sustain the social and political transformations in our country. And I claim what each progressive force contributes. We have been able to stop a cut in unemployment benefits that the Government was trying to impose on us.

Q. Why don’t you commit to staying in Brussels for five years?

R. It’s impossible to know. Those of us who go from P
odemos to the European Parliament are not going to be standing still or silent and we are going to be useful.

Q. As former Minister of Equality, how do you now see Ana Redondo’s work at the head of that department?

R. Last term we took giant steps, although more is always necessary, and I am sad that the president has made the decision that feminism has to be hidden.

Q. The party will soon hold its citizen assembly. Are you considering assuming greater responsibility?

R. I will follow what the militancy says, but right now it is not something we are thinking about. When the citizen assembly arrives, we will see.

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