De la Torre, unbeatable mayor for 23 years: "It frustrates me that there are no PSOE-PP pacts"

The start is not bad for us because in one of those 100,000 hours, sure!, the young De la Torre must have dreamed of artificial intelligence. What for his generation was fiction today is a reality. And to top it off, he will have to face her as mayor of his city.

De la Torre is itself a paradox. He is eighty years old and has been governing for 23 years, but these exceptional circumstances do not show an extraordinary man, but an ordinary guy. So much so that there is no way to tickle him.

–There are things that the robot says that do not add up to us: De la Torre plays the violin, the saxophone, writes poetry, speaks four languages…

–All of that is a lie except for the language, although I speak three and not four. I love music, but I don't know how to play. Hey, maybe the robot says it because of my son, who has the same name and plays the violin and the piano. I don't write poetry either.

–When talking about the mayor of Malaga, ChatGPT highlights above all his “longevity”. Answer your detractors: at eighty years old, can you be in a position to govern a city of half a million inhabitants?

–If you keep yourself in an acceptable physical and mental shape, yes. Because the experience guides and the physical form leads. I think I can combine the two and that's why I continue.

De la Torre is sitting in a room in the City Hall of Malaga, a palace built facing the sea at the beginning of the last century.. Next door, the Bank of Spain. It is a noble area, a long walk that connects with the old streets through a wall where Aleixandre's poem to his city is written: “Hanging from the imposing mountain, barely stopped / in your vertical fall to the blue waves”.

The mayor receives, specifically, in the offices of the popular group. You understand that you are speaking as a candidate and that is why the interview is not held in the main office of the institution. Everything is humbler here, more sober. like school. Plastic tables, shelves with books about Malaga, a jug of water.

It is said that De la Torre, who the polls place in the mayor's office until he is 84, runs and swims every day. Many people from Malaga really believe it, but he himself recognizes the legend: he assures that he only swims one day a week and that years ago he stopped running. “Protect your knees,” he recommends.

–It is no longer just the physical. The criticism that his adversaries convey to him is that a man of his age is not aware of the new peculiarities of contemporary society.

–I feel connected with young people. I notice. I listen to them and we understand each other. I usually talk a lot with them when they stop me on the street. Yesterday a group stopped me on Granada street. He had come from inaugurating an exhibition on Picasso.

– What did they ask?

-A picture! They were some kids from Malaga who went with some of their French friends, who are here for Erasmus. And they wanted to introduce you to the mayor.

Until you drop from exhaustion

Lorraine G.. Maldonado is from Malaga. He is 31 years old. He tells us that he does not remember his city without De la Torre being mayor. It is a circumstance shared by all young people ranging from 18 to almost 35. When they began to understand what a mayor was, “Paco” was already there.

And Paco, as with almost everything, is not disturbed by anything. Paco de la Torre is the incarnation of the poem of Santa Teresa: nothing disturbs him, nothing scares him. He admits, undaunted, that it is a fact that is “important” and explains with the illusion of a child that, hopefully, one day, all these kids will think that their mandates “have not been wasted time.”

Only a crumb of political vanity peeps out when he invites them to ask their parents what Malaga was like before he arrived: “If the balance is positive, I'm satisfied.”

–And can you govern for so long without the city becoming a farmhouse?

–If you are clear about the values that should guide your political action, of course. I don't feel that risk. I am here to serve the people. I have never put the City Council at the service of my family or my friends.

De la Torre recounts that, when a family with children stops him, the parents say to the children: “Look! This is the one that commands the most in Malaga!”. And he always answers: “No! This is the one who works for the people of Malaga!”

A priori, it sounds a bit cliché, as Marcus Aurelio thought passed through the blender of simplification, but it is undeniable that people, when they hear it, believe it. Because the opposition, according to the polls, will hardly have a chance to unseat him on May 28.

– Is it your last legislature or will you be there until your body lasts? The other day, Abel Caballero, only a little younger than you, told me that he wants to govern for another 25 years.

-At home, they have been telling me for a long time that I should think about leaving him, but I have managed to make them understand me a little. Let's say that the theme has been pacified. The normal thing is that this is my last legislature, but it will depend on how I feel physically and mentally.

–Do not rule out running in 2027.

–No, but I insist: it will depend on how I feel. In Japan, retirees give back to the community. That feeling of usefulness is what encourages one to continue.

The robot tells us that Francisco de la Torre studied at the Maristas. We imagine that your schoolmates today will be, to a large extent, retirees in the conventional way: men who walk their grandchildren, have coffee with their friends, lend a hand to their children, go to the theater and concerts…

The mayor's agenda – more specifically his – prevents even a thousandth part of that long-awaited retirement life. We are intrigued to know what the meetings between De la Torre and his friends from that time are like.

He confesses that he meets very little with them. From time to time, they have lunch, but only on the occasion of some anniversary.

-You are a monk! A priest dedicated to Malaga.

-Well yes. can you say it. Why am I going to deny it?

Picasso

You mentioned De la Torre a Picasso, the flagship of Málaga, which attracts tourists with its museum, his birthplace, its merchandising… Last April marked the fiftieth anniversary of the artist's death.

– What do you think of the cancellation attempts sustained in how badly he treated his women?

–You have to study Picasso in his context. I know the book of one of your granddaughters, where the perspective that you mention is told.. I am not an expert, I do not have a very refined criteria in this regard. But Picasso has immense value as an artist. That is the legacy that matters to me.

What do we do with the other?

–When we criticize that part of his life, it should help us to incorporate the positive values that are born in opposition to what is criticized. Let's expel from our life what we consider bad in others. But I was talking about the context because Picasso's attitude, unfortunately, was even “normal” at that time.

De la Torre shows interest in ChatGPT and seems somewhat more familiar with the debate than Revilla, the first interviewee in the series. He believes that artificial intelligence, sooner rather than later, will be able to provide data and cross it. This result will be useful for the public manager to use as a prediction.. For example, to answer questions like: what do we do with the frequency of the buses? Where do we put more public bicycles?

De la Torre would also like that, starting today, a “committee of experts” will be promoted at the European or even United Nations level to think of a catalog of “ethical principles”: “It would be a good starting point for the Artificial intelligence is at our service, and not us at yours.

The mayor of Malaga puts on the table “some news that has caught his attention”: “A man in his seventies has resigned from Google to draw attention to the negative consequences that artificial intelligence can have if you don't think about things like the ones I tell you.”

– Do you usually think about the so-called “post-truth”? Do you think that what we can call “truth” has faded over the years? When you entered politics, were there fewer lies?

-Yeah. I think that, when I started, there was less lying. That of putting the lie in politics as a tool to get votes I feel like something recent. I was a deputy of UCD in the Transition. I lived that exciting stage. There was exaggeration and demagogy, but that is different from lying.

–Being you from the PP, do you attribute the blame for this drift to the left or do you recognize part of the blame on the right?

–All the examples that come to mind are lies from the left. I don't remember something equivalent on the right.

–What part of your work as a politician would you like to be able to entrust to a robot?

–I would tell him: “Study how we can organize education in Spain so that it works as well as in the Scandinavian countries”.

“But how are you going to order that?” If it is the most beautiful thing in politics. We thought you would order something much more cumbersome.

-No no. That's the most important thing to do. If the robot worked at that level, that's what I would ask of it.

De la Torre and Putin

It is precisely the robot that warns us of one of the most bizarre stories lived by Francisco de la Torre, a boring politician. How we miss boring politicians! A few years ago, the Russian government awarded him the Pushkin medal.. But, after the invasion of Ukraine, Don Paco returned it.

Tell us that story.

-They gave me the medal because we had created the museum of Russian art in Malaga, linked to the one they have in Saint Petersburg. The project greatly strengthened the image of Russian culture. But when what happened happened, I returned it.

–Did Putin himself hang it from his lapel?

-Yeah. In the Kremlin and with four or five other decorated.

-How about him?

–It was very brief, a formal greeting. Hey!

– Say, Don Paco.

–Ask the robot to see if someone else has returned his medal to Putin.

–But, excuse me, one thing: how is that done in practice? How do you return a medal to Putin?

–Through the Russian embassy in Spain. I called the ambassador, I explained my reasons. I think he understood them, although he did not tell me for fear of being fired. I did it with a transport company. I put the medal in an envelope and sent it.

– How has the relationship of the mayor of Malaga with the Russian community evolved since the invasion of Ukraine began?

–In Malaga city, the Russian community is smaller than on the coast. I have a more fluid relationship with the Ukrainian community.

mayor's t-shirts

Let's go now with the past of Francisco de la Torre. A man who has made what we could call typical evolution of the center-right. He obtained his first position in the Franco regime framed in that slight openness embodied by Fraga. Later, when the Transition came, he thought it was not enough and went to UCD. There he wanted to be with Suárez until the end. That is why he went to the CDS. Finally, he joined the PP. Just like the fathers of the Constitution, Gabriel Cisneros or Miguel Herrero de Miñón.

De la Torre’s opponents describe these changes, to put it bluntly, as chaqueterismo. His admirers call it “adaptability”. Let’s poke him a little to see if it alters his venerable bonhomie.

.

-Chaquettishness? 

-I would like to explain those changes. I was with Fraga, it is true. When that meant, within the regime, a certain openness.. They appointed me president of the Malaga Provincial Council in the seventies, but they maneuvered for me to leave because I seemed to them, precisely, too open. Alianza Popular was not what I expected, which is why I joined the UCD, through the faction headed by Fernández-Ordóñez. But, you know what?

– Say.

–When the great decline of UCD occurred, I was able to go to Alianza Popular, but I did not. I stayed until the end knowing that defeat would be certain. In the CDS I was not charged, but I did support it. And since I was a centrist, I was also in the so-called “Operation Rock”. But Guerra took Roca on TVE all the time speaking in Catalan and things fell apart. Guerra maneuvered very well.

–Of all those political projects in which you have been, say which one has you felt most identified with?. Get wet, please.

–With a cohesive UCD or a focused PP.

–Two impossible?

-No no! I identified a lot with the UCD, but cainismo was terrible. that didn't work. In politics, not only ideas matter, but also being able to work at ease and in peace. Oh, and another piece of information, because of that as a “turncoat”: in 1995, when I entered a PP list, I did it as an independent to mourn the UCD and the CDS.

– It hasn't gotten wet.

Yes, my best scenarios are a cohesive UCD and a focused PP.

–Among the other data that the robot throws up, this one stands out: you were a director in the pre-autonomous government of the Junta de Andalucía, which was presided over by a PSOE leader, Plácido Fernández Viagas.

-It was a concentration government and there was a slight minority of the PSOE.

– Do you retain that desire for understanding with the PSOE? Should there be any possibility of a pact between Sánchez and Feijóo?

–There must be that capacity for pact, of “great concentration” or whatever we want to call it. Right now there is very little. It frustrates me, yeah. Man, it's not a life without living, but you shouldn't stop contemplating that possibility.

interview in progress

Suddenly, Don Paco rises like a spring. Look at the clock. He says he has to go. Since we haven't finished the interview, he suggests that we accompany him to the event in which he must participate and that we chat along the way.

we got on the elevator. He once again warns us of how important it is to “take care of your knees”, fully aware that politics sometimes kneels. “Go up the stairs and down the elevator, that's what they recommend,” he adds.

Inside, two City Hall workers: “Mayor, not for you!”. “It is that these people have many questions and they must be addressed”. They are only two floors, but De la Torre regrets that the elevator “is so slow”. He measures time with chilling accuracy, although understandable if you examine his diary… and his identity card. We went out to the promenade, with the sea in front. We started walking and asking questions.

–We resume.

–Had you done an interview in the elevator?

–No, but we did piss Inocencio Arias.

-That awful! Well, we're not going to beat that record today.

–Broadly speaking, the leaders of the PP are divided into two: those who ask Feijóo to agree with Abascal to unseat Sánchez and those who recommend that he avoid it by all means. Where are you?

-I am in having large majorities so as not to need to agree with anyone.

–But it happens to you yourself: today you govern thanks to Ciudadanos.

–Feijóo has more criteria and information than me to decide what is most appropriate. There will be Communities where it is not necessary to agree and others where it is. They will see what they do.

– Do you feel more comfortable with the leadership of Feijóo or with that of Ayuso?

–The leadership that exists is that of Feijóo. The one in Ayuso is autonomous. In any case, I feel more comfortable with Feijóo's way of doing politics. I respect Ayuso a lot, huh? They are different contexts. Madrid is not the same as the other Communities.

a kiosquero stops us. He tells the mayor that “a pedophile” is around the park behind us and that it is usually dirty. The park, not the pedophile. De la Torre listens carefully.. He is one of those who, when he says goodbye, says “a hug” but shakes hands.

In these times of memory, we have read that one of the main criticisms of the opposition to this mayor is usually his past as president of the Malaga Provincial Council in Franco's time.

–If your grandchildren ask you who Franco was, what do you tell them?

–He was the soldier who was the protagonist of a coup that ended in a civil war and who, as a result, ruled Spain under a dictatorship for forty years. Without distorting or amplifying.

–On 23-F, you, a deputy, played an important role in the UCD bench. He was one of those who had access to the transistor to tell his companions what was happening outside.

– Julen Guimón, deputy for Vizcaya, left it to me. I climbed upstairs and, pretending to be asleep, stuck my head to the radio. At one point, the Being said that the military police were coming to free us.. They had been confused with some who had come to join the coup.. I gave the news and, when they entered, Pérez-Llorca yelled at me: “Don't come any more of those liberators!”

Malaga

We are arriving at a stage that they have set up next to the port. Dozens of cameras await, dozens of journalists. We take advantage of the traffic light to shoot the last questions. The mayor, out of the corner of his eye, consults the list of the event.

–We have asked the robot what its biggest controversies have been. What if the construction of a tower, what if the bankruptcy of a company hired by the City Council, what if the construction of a park in such a place… Are you as civilized as you seem?

-It seems that if.

–Tell us what makes you lose control. We all have something that makes us lose control.

“Honestly, nothing drives me mad.. Not even the use of lies as a political weapon, something that also happens in Malaga.

–Yesterday we took a walk through the center of Malaga. It was Monday and it was full. There is a lot of foreign tourism. The price of housing has skyrocketed, gentrification has begun to take hold, and all of this is resulting in a loss of identity. All of this is resulting in a loss of identity, so how do you deal with all these problems?

.

-There is a problem, I won’t deny it. But the city is still attractive. We must seek a balance. The problem is also very normal in Seville or Barcelona. But in Malaga there is a hopeful fact: the population of the city continues to grow; not only the population of the metropolitan area. We are making a lot of efforts.

-Say something to the robot, we’re leaving.

-Let him be a good boy and work in the service of people. 

Everything about Paco de la Torre is as it seems. Or so it seems.