In a context marked by the political disaffection of young people and the structural challenges faced by new generations, David Córdova, editorial president of Demócrata talks with Tomás Güell, president of Lideremos.
The youth organization founded in 2020, and which has now made the leap to Brussels through Youth Agenda, acts as a bridge between young people and public officials, with the aim of incorporating the voice of new generations in decision-making
Güell advocates for a new form of involvement: “We want to make an impact,” he states, synthesizing the spirit of an organization that has traveled dozens of cities listening to thousands of young people to convert their concerns into "concrete proposals". Lideremos defines itself as a service tool that shies away from personalisms and opts for building minimum consensuses on key issues.
Question - How was Lideremos born? At what moment does a young person like you decide to dedicate himself to something that apparently is not going to bring him any economic benefit?
Answer - Once I heard a politician who said that one has to wear oneself out sometimes so that society does not wear out. There is an impressive return when you try to do things well done in the long term. I am a kid from Mataró, all my life, who as a child played football and then I switched to taekwondo.
I studied organizational psychology and I had an opportunity to do an internship in an employers' association. Then I started to do many events with young people. And I said, hey, let's promote a platform to connect young talent, to get involved in what matters.
Q- What successes has Lideremos had in the development of laws or public policies?
R- For us, the first thing was to listen and we were throughout Spain, in more than 29 cities with 20,000 young people. We saw that although we are people who think very differently, we could agree on one or two things. And that's what we've done, we have been finding small things that unite and generate commitment to go for it.
For example, the Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Plan of the Government of Spain, are largely our measures. Or the Andalusia Housing Law that we presented jointly, where there were many meetings with the Minister of Housing and people from the team working. We also achieved the Plan for less bureaucracy in some city councils or the reduction of unnecessary procedures.
"We are a tool of service for youth"
The legislative processes are very long, but we are adding small things. We are very satisfied so far with the successes that have been achieved. We are a service tool for young people, it has nothing to do with people or personalistic leaderships, this is a common project.
Q- A democracy that does not solve problems weakens, what are you doing about the housing issue?
R- The issue of housing is something urgent. It's something that truly causes despair and that they have told us, "hey, let's lead with this issue." It's very strong, they promised you a welfare state, that you could have a house if you worked and it's practically impossible.
In this regard, the first thing we did was create a housing commission. From there, many meetings and working groups. Then, we gather proposals, prepare it well, review the document with experts and start presenting it.
This way we managed that in Andalusia there would be more official protection housing (VPO) or that taxes for young people who want to get a home be reduced a little. There are a large number of concrete measures that our housing manager worked very hard on, but, logically, it is not enough.
P- Having a fragmented political landscape, with several ideological spaces, without a pure bipartisanship... how does Lideremos manage that relationship with the different ideological profiles?
R- We do it with great independence. Our main objective is the young person and that the young person who is in our bases sees that they can have an impact.
We believe in breaking with this block policy. It happened to us a lot at the beginning they told us we were from one side or the other, but we do not receive public funding.
The situations of negotiations, of presentations, of when to invite... there are many things, but we do it naturally and we are clear about what we have come to do here. Because I believe that we represent a generation that has said enough. A generation that has said it wants to go forward and not behind. Even many young people are missing in Congress and in the Senate. A lot of people are missing.
Q- Artificial Intelligence is a topic that is on everyone's lips...
R- We use it a lot to develop analyses, to prepare emails, outlines... Now, we must try to give young people tools to know how we react to that. It's a challenge that needs to be put on the table and a lot of pedagogy needs to be done. Without a doubt.
AI is development, is future and is transforming lives, but there are also risks and we must try that the investment also be in education to have tools on how to manage it.
Q- Are you going to be a political party?
R- When we started they told us, but four years have passed and it doesn't look like it, nor are we going to go there. We are an association with cultural and educational purposes. Which does not imply that we do want to influence politics. In Lideremos we have many young people, some will be very valid in politics, but they can also do it from outside.
Returning to the other question, management is very difficult. Sometimes I think about it and say, wow: managing certain things that have happened in Spain, as a politician and on top of that communicating, and communicating it well, it can't be easy.
Although it is also not easy to be a young person and not be able to become independent, or have a precarious job no matter how many three master's degrees you have. That is to say, here we also know clearly who the first harmed are.
In Europe, it is something that is also happening and that is why we have promoted Youth Agenda.
P- With Youth Agenda, do you seek to achieve an impact beyond Spain?
R- Many young people from Italy and Portugal knew Lideremos and wanted to open it in their countries. The presentation of Youth Agenda took place in Brussels and was a complete success. Almost a thousand young people, MEPs, came... with a very clear objective: that young people have a strong voice in European institutions, to encourage Europe to have more long-term visions with a youth perspective and above all that there is belief in the EU, because there is a large part of the young population that sees it as very distant.
And after Brussels, we will have an opening in Rome, Lisbon, and Paris, and then we want Munich. We seek to mobilize society and channel the problems into sectoral committees where to bring together politicians and young people and then transfer the proposals to the European Commission and the Parliament.
P- If we had Von der Leyen, Pedro Sánchez or Alberto Muñoz Feijóo here before us, what would you ask them?
R- I would really like them to listen to the concrete reality of what is happening. And then I would try to get our young people to agree to choose one or two concrete things that are the highest priorities, and ask them to work on that. We have not invented anything, we have simply given a response to a generation that was very eager to set its agenda.
Q- In democracy, facing the complaint, action?.
R- Yes, yes, totally. And I believe your medium also takes this very much into account. You are doing a very important job giving space also to a project like ours. It has a lot of value.