From voting in favor of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez to not supporting the main measures of this Government, including the three Budgets. Is the BNG part of the progressive and multinational majority that supports the legislature or not?
“Our political criteria is absolutely independent”
We are in Congress to defend the interests of Galicia and the popular classes of our country, and that is what we do. We did it by supporting the investiture, in exchange for an agreement that unblocked the Galician agenda with very positive measures, and then we also do it when we denounce budgets that are not adequate for our country due to insufficient investment, which does not meet the needs of the present and much less to compensate the historical debt in investments (both in infrastructures and services in our country). We act with independent criteria, voting in favor of those initiatives that we consider positive and rejecting those that we consider negative. Unfortunately, throughout these three years, there were quite a few who did not have our support and others who did because, as I said, our political criteria is absolutely independent and is based on defending the interests of the social majorities, particularly in our country. .
Why is the BNG not as “ally” of the Government as ERC and EH Bildu? The three formations go together in many initiatives.
“The Government counts the votes and, once it has them, it is no longer concerned with anything else”
It seems that this government only understands mathematics and very little politics. He counts the votes and, once he has them, he doesn’t care about anything else. From our point of view, this is a mistake because alliances must be established on trust and mutual respect. At the investiture, by the way, the BNG voted in favor while ERC and EH Bildu abstained.
The situation also changed because the situation of our nations is different. The political context that occurs in each of the nations is different and we respect the actions of other forces also based on the interests of their country. But I insist, we act based on the interests of the social majorities of the Spanish State, in many cases. For example, we were the only political force that presented an amendment to the entire employment pension plans because we believe that it is negative for all workers in the Spanish State (to the extent that the privatization of the public system opens the way of pensions). Also, we present an amendment to the entirety against the sustainability fund of the electrical system because we understand that it is negative for the whole of the popular classes. Or we present 350 amendments to the General Budgets, not only in relation to investment in Galicia, but rejecting this unjustified increase in military spending.
In what way is this Government failing to fulfill its responsibilities with Galicia?
There are aspects of this investiture agreement that are being fulfilled or have been fulfilled, which we think is very good, such as the reductions and discounts on the AP-9, the execution of the regeneration of the O Burgo estuary, which is in process ; some infrastructures, such as the modernization of the Ourense-Lugo railway line; or the tender for the railway connection with the outer port of A Coruña, but there are many others that were not executed and that will not be executed in the legislature because these were the last budgets.
For example, the commitment to increase minimum pensions, a commitment, by the way, of the government parties also with their own electorate; that of addressing the industrial crisis in our country with a just transition process in As Pontes or Meirama, or even with an appropriate electro-intensive Consumer Statute; or the commitment to also attend to the normalization of our language and our culture in the State Administration or the media that depend on the State, etc.
His seat restored the presence of the BNG in Congress this legislature. What balance do you make of your presence in Congress? How has it helped to improve the lives of Galician citizens?
What we can be proud of is precisely acting coherently in defense of the interests of our country, of the popular classes of Galicia and of the popular classes of the Spanish State. Always maintain that coherence regardless of the position of other political forces, beyond the achievement of specific objectives, such as those to which he referred.
The truth is that there were not and there are no social problems in Galicia or in the Spanish State that the BNG did not put on the table and that, many times, is not sufficiently valued, but it is important. We already know that what is not spoken of does not exist. Therefore, the first step to be able to solve a problem is to introduce it into the political debate and we do this permanently; sometimes with more immediate success and others with less, but always laying the foundations so that these problems can be solved.
This week we have once again talked about the railway situation in Galicia, about the non-existence, for example, of a Cercanías service as it exists in the whole of Spain. We did so by simultaneously blaming the Popular Party, since it governed for many years with a minister, who is also now a deputy for Galicia, Ana Pastor, and who did nothing to resolve this situation, and the Socialist Party, which in the last four years did absolutely nothing. We are certain that the insistence of the BNG, like many other occasions on this matter, as on any other, will end up giving results.
The tension has increased in the plenary sessions due to the behavior of the extreme right and, nevertheless, it was you who the table scolded for calling the monarchy “corrupt”. Is there a double yardstick?
Sometimes it seems so, indeed, but in any case there are issues that are usually allowed in political debate, when attacking the left and particularly, pro-independence forces, and there are others in which there is no permissiveness; Quite the contrary, since a fundamental right of a deputy is restricted, such as expressing his political position on a State institution such as the monarchy. Even more incomprehensible when what we are saying is something that is known; I believe that today no one denies corruption in the monarchy, including the involvement of the current head of state in corrupt actions.
“It is evident that the PSOE has a special interest in continuing this policy of protecting the monarchy”
Its relationship with the Lucum Foundation is well known, from which it could benefit and which was the recipient of money from corrupt actions by Juan Carlos I, but it seems evident that the PSOE has a special interest in continuing this policy of protecting the monarchy. and there they also coincide with the right and with the extreme right systematically. There are more than 12 requests for investigative commissions that we presented different political forces of the sovereignism of the left to investigate the corruption of the monarchy, and all were rejected with the vote of the PSOE, PP and Vox, and this is significant.
It has been more than half a year since Feijóo came to state politics. You know him very well in Galicia. How would he define you?
I think it is a prototype of what the Popular Party represents against what was said for a long time. It’s not that he now has more exposure, it’s that, unfortunately, some sectors of the progressive left, including media sectors of the progressive left, dedicated themselves for a long time to praising Feijóo as a moderate person and a good manager. Nothing close to reality. We always denounced that this was not the case. He is as ultra as any other in the Popular Party. In fact, he participated in some of the most decidedly reactionary actions of the PP, such as the Colón demonstration, and he is a lousy manager based on criteria of public and social utility. Surely, he was a good manager for all those economic sectors that, over more than a decade, benefited from his policy of deterioration and privatization of fundamental public services, particularly health or welfare services or also education or many many others.
“Feijóo is as ultra as any other of the Popular Party”
What many people are discovering, for us, for Galicians and Galicians, is nothing new. That is Feijóo, a right-wing politician, reactionary, Spanish and a very bad manager or, in any case, who manages in favor of the interests of a minority.
Another thing is that now, indeed, there are many more people who know about this facet of Feijóo that the BNG denounced for many years in a context of extreme media control like the one that exists in Galicia, in which there are no media alternatives, at least with the capacity to reach the whole of society. And Feijóo especially benefited from this media control, also using public resources to strengthen it.
What are the main laws that remain to be taken out in the remainder of the legislature for the BNG?
The balance that we make of the three years of the legislature is quite disappointing because, although there were some measures that went in the right direction, it was almost always from social and political pressure (among others, the one exerted by the forces of the sovereignist left ), and also, almost always, partially and insufficiently by not adopting those structural reforms that can provide a solution. An example, the comprehensive reform of the electricity system, eliminating the marginalist market, but even actions such as capping the price of electricity and fuel in the final market without compensating companies. During the government of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, the big energy companies not only did not lose but they came out winning. Now there is a tax on the table that is also late and that remains partial and temporary. It seems to us that it should go much further, but of course, the Government has not yet fulfilled essential commitments.
“The PSOE takes out its true position on some issues in a more relaxed way”
For example, that 50% financing of the actions of the Dependency Law. They did not comply even in gender violence, since the investiture agreement also includes the creation of three gender violence courts in our country that were not included in any of the budgets. Therefore, they are not going to do it. They did not comply by repealing the gag law even. In relation to the crime of sedition, it seems good to us that it be repealed, but not that it be replaced by a crime of aggravated public disorder that will allow us to continue penalizing social mobilization and that may even have a broader and more extensive application. . The Housing Law has not yet gone ahead to also put a stop to this escalation in housing prices, especially rental housing. There is no real public housing policy on the part of this Government; They don’t even want to transfer the thousands of unused properties that Sareb has to the autonomous communities to be able to carry out a housing policy with them. In the case of Galicia, there are 3,000. We are not going to talk about the trans law anymore; we’ll see what happens.
It gives the impression, and these days the concern is appreciated (at least this is what they say from United Podemos) for the fact that, once the Budgets were approved, the PSOE takes out its true position on some issues in a more uncomplicated way . And hence this concern, therefore, that there are elements that do not go ahead during this legislature and that, in our opinion, are also important.
