The head of the Frente Amplio ticket for Madrid for the elections of 29N, Emilio Delgado, has said that the entry of his formation into the Government or the option of limiting itself to parliamentary support will ultimately depend on the electoral weight they achieve at the polls on 29N. In any case, he has stressed that his priority is for the measures they defend to be applied.
"For us the fundamental thing is not to enter the Government or stay out of the Government. For us the fundamental thing is that the policies we are pushing are put into effect and reach the living rooms of houses. This can be done in two ways: being within the Government or being outside it. What decides whether you are in or out? The correlation of forces and, therefore, that question until the day after the elections we will not be able to answer," he explained in an interview with Europa Press.
Asked whether his space aspires to be part of the Executive or whether it also contemplates external support, Delgado reiterated that the "options are open depending on the outcome" and that it will be essential to know the "complete picture" of the Congress after 29N.
Along these lines, he has admitted that it is complicated to set in advance a percentage of seats that sets the bar for entering the Executive, whose reissue is among Frente Amplio’s objectives. "We will make the best decision that guarantees to the greatest extent that the policies we defend land in people’s lives," he said.
Frente Amplio sees itself rising and as a dam against Vox
Delgado has assured that Frente Amplio is moving forward in intention to vote and that, in the short term, the goal set is to reach 10%, the threshold from which the number of deputies spikes. The candidacy aims to be "decisive" to "tilt the balance" in favor of the progressive bloc in these elections.
In addition, he defended that Frente Amplio is the best tool to "take away" seats from Vox, since in numerous constituencies they compete directly with the party of Santiago Abascal for the last deputy in play. "What the polls tell us is that we continue to grow and I don’t want to put limits on that change," he said when asked about the minimum level of representation they aspire to on 29N.
The 'number one' for Madrid has shown himself convinced that there will be a "major mobilization of the left-wing electorate," by considering that what is needed is not a "crystal ball" but "memory" to anticipate what the PP would do if it reaches the Moncloa, and even more so if it governs with Vox, a party which he accuses of "putting human rights into question." "In this country there are a lot of people who are not willing to go out into the street and pass either fear or shame," he emphasized.
Asked whether he sees himself as a minister in a possible Government with the presence of Frente Amplio, he replied that it is not his personal objective and that, in any case, it would be a collective decision when the time comes, something he does not currently consider relevant because they are focused on the campaign.
He has also advanced that he will take part in several electoral debates, without yet specifying which ones, and he added that during the campaign they will focus only on their own project, without directly confronting either the PSOE or other political forces.
Break with the 'purple ones' and a bet on uniting citizens
When asked about the alliance between the head-of-list of ERC, Gabriel Rufián, and Podemos candidate Irene Montero, he limited himself to saying that he "has no desire, no time, and no right" to assess other people's decisions. "We are not here to send bills, nor to see who said what or did what. We are here to prevent a democratic involution in our country," he went deeper into.
In this sense, he has reiterated that the stage of "uniting parties is over" and that they already proclaimed "no more dramas" in their first pre-campaign rally after the break between Frente and the 'purple ones' was consummated.
Thus, he has emphasized that what matters now is his ability to bring together a lot of people, something he considers "qualitatively and quantitatively superior to any other type of unity." "In this country there have been unity processes among people that have swept away the parties, and that is what we are aiming for, to achieve uniting a broad majority of Spaniards," he defended.
After that, he praised Frente Amplio's candidate for Prime Minister, Ada Colau, for whom he feels "a lot of admiration" for her prior track record and of whom he is convinced is the "best candidate that a political space could have had."
Railway, public investment and the PSOE's leftward turn
On the other hand, he has pointed out that, after the resignation of the former Transport minister Óscar Puente, what matters is that he assumed political responsibilities for the Urda (Toledo) accident and that, from now on, a new "horizon for the Spanish rail system" should be opened, where the key is to reverse the effects of years of "disinvestment and neglect of the rail system".
"We have seen that the Spanish rail system has been dragging along a huge number of problems for decades," Delgado has said, warning of decapitalization, the lack of technical staff, and a model that prioritized high-speed over commuter and medium-distance networks. He has also warned that the sector's liberalization "has taken control away from the public sector over many functions".
For this reason, he believes that the solution involves "more investment", unifying Renfe and Adif, carrying out an exhaustive audit of the service, and recovering "public control" over all rail management, something that, in his view, a right-wing that is "announcing cuts in all public spending with the chainsaw in front of it" will not undertake.
The Más Madrid leader has emphasized that the presence of Frente Amplio will be decisive in pushing the PSOE "beyond positions that historically it has never crossed on a multitude of issues", such as housing, labor policy, or now the railway.
"I remember that the PSOE voted against indefinite rent and, however, two weeks ago Sánchez said that it seemed like a good proposal," he said, insisting that Frente Amplio has the capacity to take the PSOE "much further than where it would have liked".
Criticism of the opposition and the 'Koldo' case
Afterward, Delgado reproached that PP and Vox have once again displayed, in his view, a "mean-spirited" attitude of opposition and have subscribed, in a "not very patriotic" way, to the "maxim that wearing down the country is to achieve wearing down the Government".
In relation to the latest arrests linked to the 'Koldo' case, he has called for an investigation and for responsibilities to be clarified with the "utmost forcefulness", emphasizing that his political space has not had a single corruption case in this legislature and that he feels proud of his "record of service", since all the measures that the president champions bear the stamp of the alternative left.