Ana Pontón, the first woman who aspires to govern Galicia: “We would like all the young people who want to return to come”

Galicia will face, next Sunday, a new election, uncertain and which could generate a historic change in regional politics, where the Popular Party has governed for decades.

Without the figure of the “leader” of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the next one four terms obtained with an absolute majority, he left the Xunta government in 2022 to become president of the Madrid party, dominated by the PP – which He ruled Galicia for 38 of 43 years that autonomy has – is faltering, according to some polls.

The latest duels at national level on the amnesty for Catalan independentists between the PP, the main opposition party, and the PSOE of the president of the government Pedro Sánchez, are a sandpaper which, in the case of Núñez Feijóo, causes a wave of impact that reaches their lands.

The leader of the PP He has been traveling around Galicia for days and adding his face to an election campaign in which his political future is at stake.

There are projections that give considerable growth to the Galician nationalist bloc (BNG) which, in alliance with other left-wing forces -such as the PSOE or Sumar- I could cultivate the dream of forming a government.

The latest survey by the Center for Sociological Studies was published on Monday. According to this survey, the PP would obtain between 34 and 38 seats and the BNG between 24 and 31. The PSOE, which in the last elections had 14 deputies in the Galician Parliament, this time would obtain between 9 and 14.

Gallegos in Argentina: how to vote

When you think about who can vote in Galicia, autonomy has a curiosity: it is the Spanish region with the largest number of voters abroad.

Around 20 percent of the almost 2,700,000 Galicians called to vote on 18 February lives outside Spain.

This is why the vote abroad is so important, because it could tip the balance of a result that, this time, is postulated very close and on the margins compared to the traditional absolute majority of the conservative vote.

Argentina, with emigrants and their descendants, concentrates the largest Galician community abroad.

A third of Galicians registered in the Census of Absent Residents It’s in our country. And the joke is already known: Buenos Aires is considered the fifth province of Galicia, together with La Coruña, Lugo, Orense and Pontevedra.

Is the first timeAlso, Galicians living outside the Spanish borders They will be able to vote without having to request -what was previously known as the “required vote”-. The ballots have arrived at their home and there are two possibilities to choose your candidates: by mail -until Tuesday 13 February- o personally at the consulates -until Thursday 15th-.

The woman who wants to preside over the Xunta

The regional Parliament is made up of 75 seats, of which the PP obtained 42 in the last elections in 2020. four other deputies of the 38 which indicate the absolute majority which implies half plus one of the seats that make up the Chamber.

In these elections, for the first time, a woman has the possibility of reaching the Xunta.

Her name is Ana Pontón, she was born in 1977 in a rural village in the province of Lugo and she loves reading Rosalía de Castro.

His father worked in a cement factory and studied political sciencewith a scholarship, in Santiago de Compostela.

Before turning 30 she was already a member of parliament and has led the BNG since 2016.

With her at the helm, her party went from 6 deputies in the regional parliament to 19 in the 2020 elections.

“In this election It will be decided whether there will be a president of the PP or a female president of the BNG“says Ana Pontón in an exclusive chat with Clarin.

“I encourage us to make history so that, 43 years later, we have a female president for the first time, who will work to strengthen the ties of communication and recognition that we have abroad with the entire Galician community,” Pontón will insist.

“We owe them a debt. Part of Galicia is experiencing emigration. This also makes us more universal and we must strengthen this recognition and those bonds that allow us to survive and experience this feeling of “Galicianness”. that all those who want can return.

-What are the proposals for Galicians who are in other countries?

-First, recover the memory we have. We must value all the contributions they have made throughout Argentina. The only time I was able to visit Buenos Aires I was in the Galician Center, that important space for our community, which has been eliminated. It would be necessary to recover that memory. And we need to increase measures that allow people who can return to have the safety we want to count on here. And viceversa. May we study in our schools what emigration meant and what its contribution was to the development of Galicia.

-Galicia, like all of Spain, suffers from demographic problems. If you are president, do you plan to attract young people of Galician origin?

-Return is an important part of what Galicia needs. We have a demographic crisis that is getting bigger and bigger. Out of a population of less than two million inhabitants, one hundred thousand people have disappeared in the last 15 years. We bet that this community of emigrants knows that they have a welcoming land in Galicia. We would like all the young people who want to return to Galicia to come. Here they will have facilities to study, validate their qualifications, accompany access to housing or be able to establish businesses here.

-What has changed in Galicia to give a woman and the BNG the opportunity to govern the Xunta?

-Galician society has realized that the People’s Party is leaving a worse country, in which we have a healthcare system that today has waiting lists to go to the family doctor. We have 11 thousand boys and girls without a pediatrician, we have lost the industry. The needs of the elderly were not met. A significant number of young people continue to emigrate. Let’s say that in these 15 years 200 thousand people under 30 have taken their suitcases with them. Therefore, the feeling we have is that there is an end to the cycle of the People’s Party. Polls tell us that the majority of people want change. And there emigration can play a key role in pushing towards this change which will be fundamental for the future of Galicia.

-In previous elections, the vote of Argentine Galicians went to the PP’s advantage. Why would someone who doesn’t live in Galicia vote for BNG?

-I know that there are many people who are descendants, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Galicians, but who feel a connection with our country. That in addition to the fact that her life developed in Argentina, she is attached to that “Galicianness” that is in her heart. And that’s where I want to talk from. Because from Argentina we can also push in Galicia for a change in favor of the people, in defense of education and health, of a better future for young people, of feminism.

-Spain is experiencing a moment in which territorial debate and nationalism are very rooted in daily life. Is this a situation that favors BNG?

-We don’t think about what happens in the state. We are thinking about what happens in Galicia. Indeed, the People’s Party, in this campaign, is trying to hide its management behind these debates at the state level. We focus on talking about Galicia, on the life of Galicians, on denouncing how public health is being destroyed, how there are fewer and fewer opportunities for young people. How the price of houses has increased. What we are focusing on is Galicia. We see in the polls that in these elections what is voted for in the general elections is not repeated. There is a Galician key in these elections.

-Does the fact that they are a nationalist party represent an independence option?

-We are a nationalist organization that defends the fact that the more decision-making power the Galician people have in their hands, the better. What we believe is that we are in a moment in which the structure of the State and the debate on the territorial model are open and that the path we must pursue is the recognition of plurinationality, pluriculturality and plurilingualism, which is something that exists. We have our own language, our own culture. We are no more than anyone but we also don’t want to be less.

-Does asking for more autonomy mean wanting to be an independent republic like Catalonia?

-I think that asking for more self-government, in the specific case of Galicia, means developing the current statute. We have more than 35 powers awaiting transfer and we want to open a debate on how this plurinationality is recognized in the State. I think that Galicia must be present with its own voice. We do not copy or imitate what the Basques or Catalans do.

-Does the current debate on the amnesty law favor or hinder the proposals of nationalist parties such as the Galician one?

-I think that in Galicia this is not an element that influences the campaign. The PP sees how this plan in which it tries to hide the failure of its management behind debates such as amnesty does not work, because the Galicians know that what is cutting off their public health is not the amnesty law but the PP; It’s not the amnesty law that closed more than 150 schools in our country, it’s the PP; It’s not the amnesty law that made 200,000 young people emigrate, it’s the PP.

-Sumar, the party of Vice President Yolanda Díaz, believes it will be the key to a possible left-wing government in Galicia. Do you see yourself in that scenario?

-Governments are decided by citizens with their vote. Next February 18th the Galician men and women will have to speak. It doesn’t make much sense to talk about a pact. I believe in the culture of dialogue, of agreement, of the ability to understand each other between different political forces.

-The BNG, which supported the re-election of Pedro Sánchez, has a seat in the Congress of Deputies. What did your party ask in exchange for supporting Sánchez’s investiture?

-We have an investiture agreement that strengthens the solution to problems that depend on the state and which, until now, had not been addressed in Galicia. We are busy launching local rail services, which are vital to some of our cities. We have achieved reductions in tolls on national highways in our provinces for Galicians and have made progress in other areas of infrastructure and social policies. This is an investiture agreement and not a legislative agreement and will leave our hands free during the entire mandate. We will continue to negotiate to improve the lives of Galician men and women and promote rights and freedoms.

-Why has Galicia become a fundamental cog in Spanish politics? Núñez Feijóo and Yolanda Díaz mark a presence in the area and campaign with their candidates. Both are Galician, but is national leadership at stake in these regional elections?

-In the Spanish state we are witnessing a phenomenon: Madrid politics wants to become the center of everything. And he’s trying to do that in this election. They want to move here the battles of Madrid which do not interest us and do not resolve us. These elections concern the lives of Galician men and women and represent neither the reconfirmation of Pedro Sánchez nor the consolation prize of Feijóo.