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Pedro Pascual (For Avila):
Por Ávila was the revelation party in the 2019 elections. Split from the Popular Party just a few months ago, the party won a seat at the hands of a man from Avila totally unrelated to politics. Pedro Pascual is an Emergency and Urgencies doctor in Ávila and since he took up his position as attorney he has been very clear. He went to the Cortes to ask for investments and projects for Ávila. From then on, he is always willing to negotiate with anyone, without cordon sanitaire.
Two and a half years following his first press conference, he is still in his thirteen: he wants Ávila to come out “of oblivion and abandonment” and will agree with whoever promises to reverse the inequality that Ávila suffers with respect to other provinces. “We are next to Madrid and everything passes us by,” he laments. After having lived from the hemicycle a pandemic, a motion of censure and a call for elections, he assures that he does not “trust” anyone in the world of politics.
Was the early election necessary?
No. It doesn’t make any sense, I don’t see it.
What objectives have been set by Ávila?
Vindicate the needs of Ávila and that the province comes out of oblivion and abandonment in which the regional governments as well as at the national level have plunged it.
How many prosecutors do you think Por Ávila might take out on February 13?
A good number would be three [Ávila reparte siete escaños]. It is very ambitious, but if people really value what we have done and what can be done, it is an amount that is viable, so I breathe on the street.
They are also presented in Valladolid. Do you think they will be able to get a seat?
I see it more difficult there, but it is a requirement of the people who live in Valladolid. Half of the population of Ávila is scattered, they have had to leave Ávila due to labor and transportation difficulties.
Why Ávila had secret negotiations with Citizens for the General Budgets of the Community, as President Mañueco said?
None. I can say that too. There was no secret negotiation. All the negotiations we have had have been clear, transparent and three-way.
And with the PSOE to present a motion of censure?
Nothing nothing. With the PSOE we have not sat down to talk regarding anything in all the budgets.
I don’t know if maybe some coffee…
Nothing nothing. Nor coffees. I have a good relationship with all parliamentarians, but besides, I haven’t even had coffee with the Socialist Party.
After the early election, has your relationship with the Popular Party suffered?
No. We have the same relationship.
I say this because now for some members of the PP, Por Ávila is ‘a local party’.
I do not know. I guess they have always thought the same thing and before that they probably wouldn’t say it… If they only manage political interests. They only think of themselves, not the Castilians and Leonese or the people from Avila. They think of their armchairs. What is good for them to speak well? Well, they speak well. And if it suits them to speak badly, then they speak badly. They are political strategies, stagings.
If the vote of Por Ávila were necessary, would you support Mañueco so that he might become president once more?
I don’t have any cordon sanitaire. I am here to get things for my province, which needs many things in terms of infrastructure, health and employment. I am open to all dialogues. If you sit with me, I am very clear: I want this for Ávila. And if it is successful, I have no problem talking to anyone.
And will he be able to trust Mañueco once more?
I don’t trust anyone in politics. I have been in politics for two and a half years and they have shown me that no one can be trusted. I only trust the people from Avila. I think they have to be wise and sensible and see what has happened in these thirty-odd years. And they decide. The people on the street who tell me what they need and how they are, and what is right and what is wrong. I don’t trust politicians, but you have to do politics. I am a man of my word. And I do not deceive anyone or lie. If they lie to me, there they are; I sleep very peacefully.
If you don’t trust politicians, why did you decide to run for Parliament once more?
Precisely for that reason, because I don’t trust them. We need people who do not lie, who go with the truth ahead. And we all citizens have to get involved in politics, because if they are not always the same. Realize that they rotate positions and we always see the same ones. I think more people have to start getting involved in politics and get us out of this, out of this discredit of politics. Politics is necessary for society to advance, do you understand? But that thing regarding changing chairs…
If Vox wanted to enter the government of the Board, would you abstain or vote in favor?
I’ll tell you the same thing once more: I don’t have any cordon sanitaire. What I intend is to get things for Ávila, not get things for myself or for my party. I simply introduce myself because I think Ávila needs a lot of things. I’ll sit down and talk to everyone. And if they put it in writing and they do it… what I want is facts. Since I don’t trust words, I want facts. And I will be where the facts are that favor my province.
What exactly are they asking for Ávila?
We are very bad in communications, both rail and road. We are bad in terms of health. There is a lot of talk regarding open clinics, but in the end we do not have enough professionals. When we have a time-dependent pathology such as a stroke or a heart attack, we have to wait for medical transport that sometimes arrives and sometimes does not arrive, or arrives very late. At the very least, it should be speeded up a lot. And of course, we have a hospital that has what it has for our population; We depend on a reference hospital. We want to have the same possibility of not having consequences and being able to recover as Salamanca, León, Valladolid or Burgos. And that is what you have to fight for, to have a consistent health. That in rural Health, pediatric care is in conditions… These are fundamental things. If we add to that the fact that we can have an industrial area and more investments… If we are next to Madrid and everything passes us by, because we have had terrible infrastructure for a few years and nobody thinks regarding it.
The subject of rural clinics has given much to talk regarding in the last year and a half. Were they open or closed?
I can open an office, but if there is no one… Yes, it is open, but there must be a health professional who attends to that need. And that can be achieved.
This time the electoral appointment does not include local elections. Do you think it can harm them?
No, I think it can benefit us. Most people don’t even know who the attorneys are. Many times the vote of the City Council, which is personal, drags the candidates to the Cortes. Now there is no drag and I hope that people are aware of who the attorneys are, know them and vote accordingly.
For Ávila he will not participate in any of the two mandatory debates because he does not have a parliamentary group. Would you like to participate in a third debate like the one proposed by Ciudadanos?
I would like to be in all the debates. I would love to be in all of them, with everything I have learned regarding politics… Besides, it would give a lot of play.
What do you think of the blocking of RTVE to broadcast one of the two debates?
It seems absurd to me. We are talking regarding a democratic society with freedom of expression, freedom of the press and I don’t understand why this blockade.
These weeks there has been a lot of talk regarding macro-farms. What position does Por Ávila have in this regard?
The truth is that I am not very put on the subject, honestly. I am considering many opinions, because I give importance to livestock. I would have to talk to ranchers, because I am not convinced by any position I have heard. It is a very important sector in my province and in Castilla y León and I believe that it cannot be treated as it is being treated. It is important enough that we sit down and not use it as a throwing weapon, but it is being used only for the electoral campaign.
He was talking regarding having talked regarding Ávila’s needs in the street, I don’t know if this question arises among the people of Ávila.
I haven’t tested it. The people with whom I have spoken think as I do: that this is an issue that must be dealt with seriously and not in an electoral way.
