Rachel Martinezsecretary of Podemos Organization in Andalusia, leads one of the two candidates – the other is that of the spokesperson in Seville, Susana Hornillo— who compete in primaries to decide the direction of the party in the coming years.
Martínez explains that one of his fundamental ideas is to reinforce the role of the territory, of Andalusia, both within the State and within Podemos. “I am Andalusian at heart“he says.
In this interview with Public expresses that the fundamental political objective is to bring Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla (PP) of the Board and, to do so, he considers it necessary to reinforce the role of the circles and work side by side with social groups.
There is a growing unrest in many areas today, in the Andalusia of the PP: health, housing, education, university, dependency…: “When the electoral moment arrives, people have to see who has been defending their same positions and has been accompanying You have to do work on foot. Be, collaborate, individually [con los colectivos y movimientos sociales]. It is the only way to generate that trust,” analyzes Martínez.
What project do you propose for Podemos? Where would you like Podemos to be in four years?
I would obviously like it if at the end of the four-year term we could be in the Government on the Board. That would be an aspiration and it would be desirable. If not, let us have a force with sufficient presence within the Andalusian Parliament as opposition to the Government of Moreno Bonilla. The main thing is to try to unseat him, but if not, the next option would be to have a sufficiently visible opposition force.
You have spoken many times about the need to strengthen Podemos. What fundamental ideas need to be applied to achieve this?
When I say reinforce and build, I say it above all because in these years we have gone from one election to another and that prevents an organization from being able to settle and work in the territory. When you get into the electoral loop it is complicated. Now we have to dedicate ourselves body and soul to building the party from the base.
In the documents we specify that more visibility and strength be given to the regional circles, because Andalusia is very large. Without the strength of Andalusia, general elections cannot be won. And building internally, without taking into account the diversity of the regions, we cannot do it either. So, creating strong regional circles will allow us to cover a much larger political area. Each region in Andalusia has different needs and fighting together will also be important.
We also have the issue of sectoral circles. We are going to recover them in Podemos Andalucía. It is about having the ability for all people who have interests or a specialty, both professional and activism, to contribute to Podemos Andalucía from these sectoral circles. The role of sectoral circles will be very important to support the institutional work of councilors and deputies.
When I talk about sectoral circles I am referring to Health, Education, and Human Rights circles, at the level of all of Andalusia. There are going to be people who are going to be working on that, focused on that.
And we also have to strengthen ourselves in the territories by providing support so that in the circles people can do politics from the closest and that in this work they have the support of the organization and that we can give them enough tools so that they can work in their municipalities.
How is Moreno Bonilla opposed? Six years later it is still very high and without any apparent scratches. Are the left doing their opposition work well?
Well, I think not currently. There is not a good opposition, more than anything because we would include the PSOE in what is understood as the left. And the PSOE is completely missing in the Andalusian Parliament. And it is true that the rest of the forces have a small representation. So right now Moreno Bonilla is moving with total impunity and that is also why they are so high.
The truth is that more and more Andalusian society is realizing what a PP government means. Many times the focus is placed on Ayuso at the national level, but Moreno Bonilla, with the most moderate profile, is making some cuts and selling the public in a brutal way. We believe that the best way is to work with groups and with platforms, with civil society and go with this joint work in the face of cuts.
There is now in effect a conjunction of unrest in Andalusia – health, housing, dependency education, universities – but it does not seem that this is being made profitable by the left. How can you connect with those people who feel discomfort?
When I talk about the organic part, of building and working, I mean getting back to that. We have gotten so involved in the internal electoral dynamics that we have forgotten, not everyone. But we want to strengthen that, the link with social movements and groups. Podemos has to be a tool, not to use the social movement, but so that the social movement can use Podemos. And that we put all our resources at your disposal.
When election time arrives, people have to see who has been defending their same positions and has been accompanying them. You have to do work on foot. Be, collaborate, individually. It is the only way to generate that trust. When the program has credibility it is because you have been building it with those social movements.
Podemos is now in the parliamentary group For Andalucía, which shares it with other left-wing forces, there is IU, there is Más País/Sumar. Do you think this confluence is working? What balance does it make?
For our part, we are not at all happy or satisfied with how it started. But I am very proud of the work that the three deputies are doing. If that confluence had not occurred, right now we would not have that voice in Parliament. We have tried by all means to reinforce this work of the deputies.
Do you think it is convenient to repeat some type of confluence similar to this one, sharing spaces with other forces in the next regional elections or does Podemos in Andalusia have the will to go alone?
To begin with, right now, no one, neither at the Andalusian level nor at the state level, that is, no one can say what is going to happen in six months because there is a destabilization in their space. We can be in the same place. But what is happening now in Sumar… they will have to agree and decide what they are, where they are going and what they want. For six months, no one can say what may happen. Who are we going to have in front of us to sit down.
From Podemos we have always said it and it is in our documents. Podemos has always made it easier to listen to sit down and talk with other forces, but it is also true that we are very clear, and after what happened, we already voted on very clear lines in documents, which were our militancy that gave them to us. In Andalusia we are very clear that if the format is that of Sumar, with Sumar’s vetoes, with Sumar’s political line and with what it has represented, they will not count on us.
Are you talking about Sumar, not IU?
I’m talking about space. If the format that IU intends is the same as that of Sumar, they are not going to have us in those. It has already been seen that this format does not work and we have already seen what it has caused. And the political line they are following in the Government of Spain is very clear and the vetoes and everything they did are also very clear. Podemos is respected. And whoever wants to talk to Podemos has to talk face to face and without any type of vetoes and with a political line that is close to ours. We have demonstrated in Congress that we have a very clear political line. They kicked us out. They didn’t let us do politics.
You have said that you have no interest in being a candidate in the regional elections. Do you think it is the best model for a political organization, for the leadership to coordinate from outside the institutions?
Yes. For me that is something of absolute conviction. I have demonstrated it, furthermore, they are not words to the wind. As secretary of the Andalusian Organization, she could serve two terms in the Almería City Council. I said no, first, because I was a candidate for Congress and it doesn’t seem right to me that one should run for everything. And in the second term I also refused because as Secretary of the Andalusian Organization my duty was to ensure the interest of Andalusia. I don’t think it’s ethical for someone to negotiate for their own interest. I believe that a general secretary has to look after the good of the entire party. In this way, we also avoid individualism and personifiable leadership. I think it is the healthiest way to build collectively.
How do you analyze the current political situation, the general context. Do you think people’s real problems are in focus right now or the noise, fear, and uncertainty cover up what is happening?
They are not talking at all about what people are really interested in. They are covering it up with noise, but also bad noise. The noise they use between one another is him and you more in this brawl. And what they are doing in the PSOE, which is quite bloody, is feeding the extreme right.
They accused us of making noise. Podemos made noise to vindicate the needs of the people, when we asked for a cap on housing, for salaries to be raised. In other words, we have been giving voice to the needs of the people and we already know all the attacks we have suffered and what they have tried to do with us.
Right now we are not talking at all about what really interests people. In other words, when I talk on a daily basis with my friends, my family, my neighbors, they don’t talk about what they are talking about in Congress. People are worried about making ends meet, paying for the house, they are worried about going to the doctor, that their children can have a quality education, regardless of their parents’ salary. Politicians are not talking about those things right now and it is a reality.
Say three problems, take three as a reference, there is no need for three, the problems you detect that are the fundamental ones, the central ones of Andalusia and their possible solutions.
First of all, public services, of course. We must leave private companies and make a real investment in public services in general, in health, education, dependency. They are fundamental pillars for the security and well-being of citizens, so that would be the first thing. Leave the concerts and contracts and focus on public health.
The housing problem, of course. Improve housing law. Andalusia cannot become a tourist theme park from which people have to leave. It is a fundamental problem. And we must create public housing. There are models of what should be done to create public housing and make it available to young people and older people. It would be essential.
The economic model is very focused on tourism. And this must be sustainable and truly generate wealth for the Andalusian citizens themselves, for the people of Andalusia. We are seeing how the arrival of vulture funds to buy our own land is being favored, also in Agriculture. The benefits go away. This must be regulated and we must create new employment methods. It is the basis for Andalusian citizens to live better.
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