Jon Aristu
Pamplona (EFE) they say goodbye to the Legislature and leave the front line of politics.
Between the three they have 32 years in the Parliament of Navarra. Bakartxo Ruiz and Marisa de Simón came to the Provincial Chamber in 2011 and Mikel Buil did so in 2015. The three review what their time in politics has been like in an interview with EFE.
Despite being part of different political options, they coincide in their answer when asked about the best moment of their time in politics and the three stand out when in 2015 it was possible to add an alternative majority to UPN to form between Geroa Bai, EH Bildu, Podemos and Izquierda-Ezkerra the government of change.
Bakartxo Ruiz: “Dealing with adolescents is not so different from some parliamentarians”
The spokesperson for EH Bildu, Bakartxo Ruiz, will return to teaching in September, her true vocation, after 12 years in the Parliament of Navarra and recalls that “dealing with adolescents is not so different from dealing with some parliamentarians”.
She is clear that she will not be nostalgic, but she will remember moments with “love” and she has no doubt that she will come to the end of a plenary session to “have a drink” with her colleagues, since she will continue to be linked to the EH Bildu project.
After three legislatures, he has learned to “work with very different people and many things from social movements or colleagues”, also to get out of his “comfort zones”. If she has to highlight the best moment, she has no doubt that it was election night in 2015 and the worst, the death of her partner Aitziber Sarasola in 2014.
“I believe that within the successes and errors and some frustration that another, it has been exciting and I am proud and satisfied to have contributed to the creation of a first-rate political actor,” explains Ruiz, who when it comes to self-criticism considers that it has been possible to “precipitate certain actions” or “have had certain prejudices to value some people”.
In this sense, he points out that among the parliamentarians who have surprised him for the better, Inma Jurio from PSN stands out: “She seemed much more belligerent to me than what she is later in the short distance.”
Marisa de Simón: “The worst thing was to keep quiet when the discussions in Podemos”
Marisa de Simón has also accumulated three legislatures as representative of the Navarrese in Parliament and it is clear that the worst moment was when “the discussions began within Podemos, that we had to keep quiet thinking about maintaining the Government of change and the worst moment It was realizing that it was a silence that did not suit the transforming left.”
That is also the self-criticism that he makes, since he considers that he was not right by keeping quiet when he should have made a “constructive criticism”.
Even so, he believes that he has learned a lot, especially from his colleagues, “from José Miguel Nuin, and from many others.” He also to “dialogue more calmly, to take things without so much viscerality and to make a calmer policy.”
De Simón has “no idea” what he will do from now on. “I am clear that I am never going to abandon politics, I have been doing politics since I was a teenager and I am not going to leave that, but I do not know what my life can be without running everywhere.”
She leaves “very satisfied with the work because being a minority representative force we have been a greater force. We have been able to maintain that non-nationalist transformative left”.
“Arantza Izurdiaga (EH Bildu) surprised me very well, as I didn’t know her, or Javier García, who is politically at the opposite end of the spectrum but is a good colleague,” he adds.
Mikel Buil: “The results of 2019 were a significant bump”
Mikel Buil is a spokesman for Podemos in Parliament and leaves politics after eight years on the front line. Podemos entered the parliamentary arc in 2015, being the protagonist for the change of government, but in 2019 “the results were a major bump”, in what Buil points out as his worst moment.
Even so, the spokesman for the purple formation leaves “satisfied” with the work of these two legislatures: “We have contributed to Navarre politics on key issues such as guaranteed income or taxation”, although he acknowledges that perhaps they have put “too much force into the relationship of the parliamentary group with the Government, in that negotiation”, and have lost “visibility”.
Buil points out that in this time he has learned to “have patience, to negotiate and not to lose the push, the need for someone to push.”
As for the parliamentarians who have surprised him for good, he highlights Txomin González (EH Bildu), Ramón Alzórriz (PSN) or Raquel Garbayo (Navarra Suma).
Now he is leaving politics, he will focus on studying to be a teacher, in addition to English. “I am retiring from the work of public representation, I like politics and I am still from Podemos, but I think that freshness has to enter. Will I go back to politics? Right now it’s not in my head.”
“Tipping point” in politics
The three spokespersons agree that politics is increasingly losing place among the issues that interest the public and Ruiz points to a “turning point” that has to do with “not keeping the word given.” “We have to learn to do a job that is more connected with the citizenry and keep our word,” he points out.
Buil and De Simón focus on “over activity”. “In the last legislature we increased the plenary sessions to one per week and there is an excess of initiatives. In the first two and a half months of the legislature there were 94 commissions, concentrated in 20 days. It is impossible to follow this activity, there is no limit to the parliamentary initiative and this makes it lose interest ”, explains the spokesman for Podemos.
“I have been warning for a long time, in Parliament there is an exaggerated activity and the quantity has caused a loss in quality. That there is a plenary session every week with that pile of questions, it is impossible to pay attention to such a hodgepodge. In addition, the debates are not political, but more typical of a show ”, criticizes De Simón.