How do you see the electoral date on Sunday? Are you even worried about the weather? Since people are going to go willingly, I hope not. I have seen people very committed to the polls, especially the elderly, they are the most generous and the most concerned about the future. I perceive the same illusion as in 4-M and also something special, that very different people, especially workers, approach us. Also young people, whole groups of friends go to meetings. That generates uncertainty, vertigo, pressure.
.. what does it produce?
A mixture of sensations because the campaign is very beautiful but I want to know the result. I am also uncertain about what will happen, of course, after four very difficult years. It is difficult to explain the respect that a ballot box generates for a politician.
We are two days away from that urn. Do you see an absolute majority as possible?
I don't know how the town halls, Sánchez's electoral announcements or the use of institutions are going to influence, but just in case I think positively. When I arrived, a survey gave me 22 seats, in an interview with you the headline “I resist everything” was left and it is incredible what has come. The feeling is very good and only the fact that so many borrowed votes repeat means that I have not disappointed them.
Do you see yourself maintaining that vote in the bastions of the left?
Everything indicates that we are always going further and that means that he trusted this project and will do it again. It is more important not to disappoint these people than my expectations.
In the case of the majority, what government do you have in mind?
I imagine a government that is just as executive as the one now, with ministries working in coordination. I can only think big with an executive government, which will be liberal so as not to attack property, companies and investments. The enormous change in Madrid needs the policies of the PP.
You plead for a renewal, which advisers would enter?
I like the mixtures, we have a great quarry, but throughout these years I have met people who have shown me great knowledge of their sectors. You have to combine experience and novelty, different ages…
Open the door to profiles that are not from the party in that case
Many of my candidates do not come from any party. I always think of the Government, but since we have entered the campaign I have parked it a bit. I have thought of an important part, but first you have to see the challenges, what I want to achieve, and then the right people. If it is done the other way around, you are wrong because my loyalty is with the citizens, not with me. Governments do not go for personal affinities.
Let's go to the opposite scenario, is it seen in a government with Vox?
I do not think about it, I do not want to give up on projects like in this legislature, which have been blocked for ideological reasons, which is the most perverse thing in politics. I only think of adding to have a government of a single color. It is better not to imagine a situation that now seems unlikely.
What has changed in recent months to go from being partners to confrontation?
I want to remember that I have a free government, that the people of Madrid decided so on 4-M, adding more than the left. We have reached agreements with Vox, but with the end of the legislature they saw that they were left without visibility and decided to knock down the budgets, return to speeches on foreigners, and convey uncertain messages. It's hard to continue like this, I don't want to have to justify myself to them and I continue on my way. Unlike them, who seem more concerned with Feijóo and me than with being an alternative to the left.
You have also raised the tone at the end of the mandate.
I do not agree with that, I have explained with reasons why his speech is wrong. But I have now and always.
Are you worried that they are decisive in the City Council, according to the polls?
From sensations I would say that Almeida does not stop growing day by day, but we cannot settle. Everyone who wants liberal governments, who defend a way of seeing life, who think that Sunday is their moment in the City Council and the Community.
You propose these elections as a plebiscite for Sánchez, what do you consider a victory?
In this campaign we have talked a lot about Madrid, but growth is not possible as long as there is a government that openly warns that it is going to decapitalize the country, that implements sectarian laws that scare away housing and investment. Just the fact that it shows up at the polls, which I am convinced, is enough.
Does that sound like a victory to you?
The victory is not only how much it remains above the PSOE, but the percentage of growth.
But his thesis could imply not recovering key territories for his party, such as Valencia.
It must be borne in mind that one starts from a situation of great disadvantage in many municipalities, not only in Madrid, in many corners of the country.
Have you set the generals at the end of the year as a personal goal together with Feijóo?
It is a necessity because Spain is an abandoned nation from an institutional, territorial and social point of view.. The Spain that does not vociferate wants to grow in plurality and raise its country together as it has been done over the years.
The polls still maintain Sánchez's options. Is it more even than it seems?
I am convinced that this reversal is going to take place because nobody has asked for an ideological transformation of Spain at the hands of the minorities that have settled in the institutions out of necessity of Pedro Sánchez. Nobody wants nationalism to continue to grow in the Basque Country, Navarra, Catalonia, the Valencian Community or the Balearic Islands. The Spain that was forged at work does not support so much beautiful and sectarian law or so much frivolity and it is going to demonstrate in December.
On what do you base that belief?
The vast majority of Spaniards from left to right have not voted for a modification of the Penal Code to the letter of the criminal. Now there is a Spain where we are not all equal before the law, people work and pay a lot of taxes and only receive abuse from the administration, which comes to assume powers that are not its own and only seeks more public employment for its purposes. This does not mean that everything is finished in Spain, but rather that this inertia leads us to an unprecedented institutional deterioration.
In what do you consider that we are not equal before the law or is there abuse?
At the moment when there are people who are entering the administrations outside of career civil servants, when the credit of a self-employed person is suddenly cut off due to a fine, when there are people convicted of serious crimes treated with preference or when great professionals cannot access the civil service because they do not speak Catalan or Basque.
Did you count on the aggressiveness of Podemos in this campaign?
All the limits have passed, nobody knows the name and face of the brother of the President of the Government or of any other politician. Of mine, yes. They are the same Batasuna techniques against judges, businessmen or journalists. A few days ago we saw how Ana Rosa Quintana was called corrupt in a square.
The Electoral Board has filed the complaint of the PP against the canvas of his brother. How do you value it?
Regardless, I don't touch on that topic.
Despite the fact that your party does not value this path, does it continue to explore the illegalization of Bildu?
If they keep asking me, I do not insist, I give my opinion that does not change from one day to the next. Bildu still has a lot to keep quiet about because there are 300 unsolved crimes and those convicted will collect their records, you'll see. In fact, their faces are still on the billboards. As long as there are 180,000 people outside the Basque Country and the censuses have been forever flawed, we cannot forget this debate.
Have two sides been opened in your party with this matter?
We agree on what is important, what is striking is that the Government agrees with Bildu to take a second line and not harm the interests of Sánchez. I am concerned that they prefer agreements with Otegui rather than with the PP.
We ask about your party.
I understand that they want to see a debate there because it is morbid, but we are not like the Government and the PSOE who literally kill each other, but they all come up with the same argument as Tezanos. I think that we must ensure by all means that this is 100% legal. Many members of the party think that the way is to go through the Supreme Court and others to the Prosecutor's Office. That is the discrepancy, which seems minimal to me. I do not tolerate that they seek discrepancies with the national leadership for the simple fact of which court to go to.
The other day Consuelo Ordóñez said she felt betrayed. Is the PP using the victims?
I am unaware of this woman's personal problems with the PP, which are not current, but I respect them. There are also many victims who have lost a family member who agree that this is humiliating.. And Spanish society is also a victim from the moment it has lived under the threat of terror and there has been an ideological and ethnic cleansing in the Basque Country. Nobody wants this to happen again, but they want them to get out of our lives. As long as they are, we will continue to comment.
If Feijóo were president, would you propose a reform of the Party Law to make it illegal?
At a time when there are unsolved crimes and unrepentant people, I want to make sure that those who have killed do not win in our society.. I'm not saying they can't be rehabilitated after their sentence, but is it necessary for them to dedicate themselves to politics? Can't they dedicate themselves to something else? No, they have to go from the revolutionary tax to touch everyone's taxes. And for the record, I'm not talking about making them illegal because I don't like them, like those who want to make unions illegal, what I don't want is to launder what may be illegal.
Do you see four years in another electoral campaign for Madrid or will this be the last?
We have opened many avenues to modernize the region, I can only think of seeing it. But in the future I am interested in youth and childhood. When I can no longer do my best, I will dedicate myself to some of that.
The leader of the PP opens to pacts with the PSOE. Are you a fan of them?
I don't know what I would agree to right now, but certainly nothing that goes against the principles of the liberal center-right. There have always been big deals on pensions, foreign policy…. but the question is what has happened to the PSOE, which is once again promoting two sides and which is transforming itself ideologically without respecting anyone.
With these conditions, do you think they can agree?
Feijóo has offered great agreements on fundamental issues and nobody has wanted to open that door. They were very busy agreeing with the independentistas, with Bildu, with Podemos, with all those who were taking Pedro Sánchez's sleep away and now have taken away his credibility.
So you don't see it as possible to agree with the PSOE?
Under these conditions it is very difficult to agree anything with them.
Do you agree with Feijóo's approach that the most voted list should govern?
The PP has offered it on numerous occasions so that Spain does not fall prey to minorities and that they do not have more power than the main opposition party. Neither the PSOE nor the left consider it, why are we going to do it?
In the municipal field, what do you aspire to in the red belt of the south of the region?
We have renewed a vast majority of the candidacies and we have seen rallies just as full in Pinto, Valdemoro or Alcalá with all kinds of people: families, children, the elderly, people with pets, people with a disability…
Do they see themselves capable of wresting town halls from the PSOE there?
Yes, I see that there is a growing trend because they are excited to change and they want their municipalities to be more cared for. It is an immense majority united by some fundamental values that seeks a peaceful life, where each time one tries one goes further and where if someone is left behind they have a second chance, where what has been achieved is respected.
In what situation is the Madrid health system?
We are presenting a healthcare transformation project that is exciting from the digital point of view but without undermining the face-to-face. That future with artificial intelligence is going to help us face one of the great challenges when the population that will reach 100 will multiply by four in the next 15 years.. It will be key to give us a good quality of life.
However, only 20% of the Family Medicine MIRs in Madrid have taken a position and one of 48 in Pediatrics. There is a problem?
What we have seen is that to date the places offered in Madrid have been occupied all. I think that more than 200-odd places have become available outside of our community and that it continues to be a region where everyone wants to come to study and train.
After the Vinicius case, is Spain a racist country?
Spain is not a racist, homophobic or sexist country, but there are individuals who are. What cannot be used is a circumstance to create a story that divides from the public and open fights that do not exist in this country.
We are going to give you the example of Monasterio in the debate on the 'menas'. Does that kind of public speech encourage racism?
It encourages little, because fortunately little attention is paid to what they say. All you have to do is go down to the streets to see people of all colors.
But it links these minors to insecurity and crime.
Nobody wants insecurity and irregular immigration worries the immigrants themselves and the whole of society because it has integration problems. But linking immigration to crime is untrue and falls under its own weight. The key is in integration, a person who is not integrated does not matter if they were born in Chamberí or Somalia.
Will Madrid have Formula 1 in the next legislature?
I am very optimistic, but since the negotiations are not 100% closed, going ahead does not help. But only that it is feasible shows that the international image of Madrid has not stopped growing.
IN SHORT
1. Any amulet on 28-M?
I am wearing three bracelets that were given to me on the same day: one by a man in the street, Jesus; another from Venezuela, and another from Carlos Mazón.
2. A song to cheer up.
Now we are free, the soundtrack of Gladiator.
3. An electoral rival to have a beer.
Juan Lobato.
4. There is no beach here, but there is…
The San Juan swamp.
5. And come on, to put a but: what would you change?
A true maternity policy.