Although it accumulates 21 years of activism and demonstrations claiming improvements for Soria, the most depopulated province in all of Spain, Soria ¡Ya! was presented to elections for the first time this Sunday, on the occasion of the regional elections of Castilla y León. And it swept The group of voters was the most voted force in the province.
The results of the 13F elections in Castilla y León, by municipalities and provinces
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It obtained almost 43% of the votes in the province and more than 50% in the case of the capital, for which it obtained three of the five seats distributed by this constituency, usually led by the PSOE. Now they are already thinking about upcoming electoral appointments and have just confirmed that they will run for the general elections.
After conducting more than 24 interviews since last night, the spokesman for Soria ¡Ya!, Ángel Ceña (Soria, 1967), does not seem tired, but he does not appear excessively exultant at the result either and speaks with caution. He attends to elDiario.es in the very modest headquarters of the platform, located in the heart of the old part of the city of Soria.
How has Soria changed from yesterday to today?
She is more excited that her voice in the institutions can be heard independently for the first time, without party disciplines or parliamentary majorities that restricted her.
Are you afraid of ending up repeating the dynamics of the games?
What we have to do is work. We will speak with the rest of the parties and we will try to be decisive in the legislature.
Are there vetoes by Soria ¡Ya! when it comes to reaching agreements with other political forces?
The only veto we have is respect for human rights recognized in the Constitution and in the UN bill of rights.
Does that mean not being able to reach agreements with Vox?
Let’s see what Vox tells us. We’ll talk to them. I think that Vox is not very willing to talk to Soria. Now! because during the campaign he has ignored us, he has insulted us and has spoken out against something that is fundamental for us, such as differentiated taxation. That is one of our ‘leitmotifs’ and it does not seem that Vox is willing to dialogue with us.
In the community the first force has once again been the PP of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. Soria already! could it be a bra of that PP?
We could negotiate with them an investiture agreement with binding commitments in the execution of our program. And when I say binding, I mean signed and chronologically ordered because many things have already been promised to us here.
Aren’t you worried that the PP has been governing for 35 years and will do so again?
If that is what the citizens want… Citizens are free and that is what they have chosen. What we think is that the scenario here in Soria has changed. Citizens have demonstrated against the classic parties and their unfulfilled promises for years and decades and now a new way of doing politics is opening up, paying attention to these most forgotten territories.
What are the main demands of Soria ¡Ya! in negotiations?
We are here to stop being the forgotten ones, to stop depopulation and reverse it. And that is only going to be done with a set of measures that have to be health, social services, education, connectivity, infrastructure… There is no star measure, it is a set of measures that some of them are also carried out by the PP in their program, so we expect a commitment, not only to fulfill our program but also yours.
Why do the people of Soria leave?
Due to lack of opportunities, because the necessary context is not created for people to stay, and that is what we want to address.
They are accused, from the PP and Vox, of being a “white mark” of the PSOE.
And also of being lackeys of the bosses. They have accused us of many things, but some politicians campaign not dirty but very little serious, with little respect for the citizens. We have respected everyone, we have not offended anyone and we would have expected them to do the same.
Would they have preferred that whoever had government options was the PSOE?
Absolutely. We have said it by active and passive. We are transversal. We don’t care who we agree with. We think that they do not provide any differentiation between one and the other. Ideologies of this kind are empty. They are used more to throw ideas to the contrary than to do concrete things.
The irruption of Soria Now! It has been very important, but other platforms in the Emptied Spain have not had enough support to reach the Cortes. To what do you attribute it?
Soria is ground zero for depopulation, it is the province of Spain with the fewest inhabitants per square kilometer, 8.6, and perhaps the situation here was worse. But besides, the movement that we represent has 21 years of experience and in other provinces of Empty Spain they were movements less known by the population.
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