Irene Montero: « The PSOE has to do its share so that there is a candidacy on the left » | Spain

We can give the departure gun this Friday to your V State Citizen Assembly. He does it at a delicate moment for the party, with only four deputies in Congress and in the midst of an international context convulsive that has forced Europe to change order after the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House. The appointment, which will re -elect the current general secretary, will also define the road map of Podemos for an electoral cycle in which Irene Montero (Madrid, 37 years) has already been promoted as its commitment to the generals. The former equality minister, today Eurodiputada, speaks safe, without a clipper and although a pacifist speech raised, does not hesitate to shoot the heart of adding. He Unit debateagain in the center.

Ask. His launch as a candidate nowwhen there is even more than two years for elections, it would seem to pay the thesis that the legislature is exhausted and that there may be an electoral advance. Do they want it?

Answer. We want a strong left in Spain, because when it is not, the right commands, even if it does not govern, which is what happens now. And that task needs time, because the left in our country has been listening for many years, also from progress and from the PSOE, that everything that people do of the left and that everything that serves to advance rights (noise, bother, take a banner and go to a demonstration) is wrong. We have a historical task, because humanity is going through a very serious crisis and decisions that are being made internationally They will condition our lives for the next decades. Therefore, we need to build much more than a candidacy: to grow the forces of peace. Therefore, in this fifth citizen assembly, we propose a clear road map so that Spain has a strong left of power and government, autonomous to established power, with the ability to negotiate with the PSOE, but without subordinating.

P. The assembly arrives in the weakest stage of the party. Do you now assure a completely different task from four years ago?

R. The political and social forces that want to change things do not always win and have a cycle that is to fight, overcome, fall and raise again. We assume that we have done a lot in these 10 years, that we are at a time when after fighting and beating we have thrown us to the ground and we have to raise again and with great pride we get up and say « we want to defeat again to be even more useful in the next 10 years. » That’s what we put can: to build a peace candidacy against rearma and to advance rights.

P. Do they support a European defense organization?

R. That Europe can coordinate its military efforts is an evidence that we have defended over the years, but the problem is now much more serious, because the strategy of reset and increased military expend Mark Rutte’s NATO. That is why defending peace is the most urgent political task. The war escalation takes us to a stage that can end in the direct confrontation between nuclear powers and defend peace is to also defend public services and the care of the planet.

P. With together we can in the government they were approved strong increases in defense games.

R. Military spending increases and weapons to Ukraine have always had the opposition of Podemos. So much so that together with the feminist laws, they have been the elements that caused the strongest government crises and for which the PSOE (and Pedro Sánchez) ended up throwing us from the government and launched the « summar operation. » However, compare the type of budget items dedicated to the defense that were made in the legislature of the coalition government with this moment in which all Europe and Sánchez intend to convert the EU In a great war economy is to lie to people.

P. What should be the answer to the tariff threat Americans?

R. Exproise to the Vulture funds the homes they have in Spain with article 128 of the Constitution, which says that all the wealth of the country is which is owned is at the service of the general interest. The main home of our country is an American vulture fund. And also expropriate their participation in large strategic companies. Funds such as Blackrock are the first shareholder of banks such as BBVA or Santander, they have 20% of Naturgy. And let’s get out of NATO so as not to continue fulfilling their military goals.

P. Are you going to work so that there is a single candidacy to the PSOE left?

R. The left would be good for a candidacy. For that, we have to do our part and also the PSOE has to do its part and all those sectors that are from the PSOE, but that right now they are out of the PSOE, make the unit with them to allow the elections to present the PSOE on the one hand and the left as well.

P. So, Podemos’s thesis is that Yolanda Díaz and certain sectors of adding go to the PSOE And do you ally with other parties like IU?

R. That is the thesis of adding, that when you ask, for example, to Mónica García if you feel closer Podemos or the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez, says ‘I, without a doubt, of Pedro Sánchez’.

P. But Sumar Movement is not in that: it has approved in its assembly a resolution to build alliances with other parties on the left and revalidate something like the 23-J pact.

R. The task that the left is right now is political and political problems will not be solved by talking about the unit. The great drama of what has happened to the « Add Operation » in these years is that the possibilities of transformation of the left have been committed. And that is why we also say that the PSOE does its part, that it also makes unity with those sectors that are more related programmatic and ideologically. And from there, that we can go to elections with all the fortress and what each one contributes.

P. You They speak in their documents to add as a « docile » left. But we have seen in recent months clashes within the coalition: the debate for the reduction of workday or the taxation of the minimum wage. Do you grant that adding has planted the battle to the PSOE on these issues?

R. Do you believe it?

P. There has been a public confrontation and the position he has won has been defended by adding.

R. But then, are they making noise? Are they uncomfortable? Are they doing all those things that have criminalized for so many years? Honestly, Spain needs a strong left, a left that does not dedicate yourself to looking for headlines or appearances, but really willing to play it when it is difficult to play it and to say that there is a dirty judicial war not only when the PSOE says it.

P. Do you think Yolanda Díaz should appear to the next electoral cycle?

R. In the internal problems of adding, I know they have a very delicate situation, I do not enter.

P. The Euro Jaume Asens said a few days ago that in politics one cannot afford to resent. Is it still hurt for being excluded from the lists on 23-J?

R. That now does not contribute anything. We are thinking that we do not want to leave this shit from the world to our children. And, indeed, with the painful things that happened a few years ago we could have thrown the towel.

P. Do you want to count on United Left for your project?

R. With all those sectors that defend peace, which are against rearmament and want to advance rights.

P. I ask why dozens of coalitions with them throughout the territory and the first thing that arrives is the elections in Castilla y León, and Then in AndalusiaHow are they going to solve that?

R. Electoral alliances at all levels will fall by their own weight if we get back to the left in Spain.

P. They proposed in 2023 to add open primaries. Is that scenario possible?

R. We can always make primaries to choose their candidates and their candidates, not only the heads of the list, but also the set of the lists and thus will always be.

P. Did you surprise the Accusations against Juan Carlos Monedero? Did you never perceive macho attitudes?

R. If they surprise me or not, it doesn’t matter. The point is that if there are testimonies of women who are breaking the silence and are talking about situations of sexual violence, the obligation of a party is to act, even if that is not the most frequent and even if no one looks at, which is when it is the most difficult.

P. They stopped calling it party acts, but he continued in some internal chat, stating, there were affectionate messages in networks towards him later. Can we do everything you could do?

R. Yes. I am sure that in what has to deal with sexual violence, our society still give protection to victims and that our spaces are safe. But although some like to say ‘we can always bad’, we act when it was more difficult, that is when nobody looks.

P. Do you share that María Jesús Montero has rectified after question the presumption of innocence After the acquittal of Alves?

R. The underlying issue is that there is a first -order democratic problem in Spain and there are macho and reactionary judges who have declared war on the right to sexual freedom. And the PSOE does not act well even when it recognizes that this problem exists. Instead of dealing with and democratizing justice, what it does is ask for forgiveness. This is not a matter of presumption of innocence. This is what justice has to do to determine whether or not there has been a sexual assault, which is to demonstrate exclusively whether or not there has been consent.

P. How long will it continue as a codiputada?

R. I will renounce the seat when the president calls elections and has to focus even more efforts here, but for now part of the task we have is to give that fight for another possible world in a Europe that is opening the door to the extreme right with that strategy of commitment to the war escalation.