Javier Rodrigo
Pamplona (EFE) Perhaps we can ask a person who meets the requirements to be the average Navarrese for their opinion.
According to data from the Statistics Institute of Navarra, it is a woman (50.66% of the population), aged between 43 and 44, with one or two children, resident in the Pamplona region, who does exercise several times a week or month (45% of the population) and that they shop online (75.3% of Navarrese do so).
Josune Méndez, owner of a Pilates studio in Burlada, meets all the requirements to be the “average Navarrese”. Her opinions do not have to be representative of those of Navarrese as a whole, but they do allow one to get an idea of the concerns and worries of many people who will go to the polls on May 28.
Politicians have “a lot of work”
In an interview with EFE, Josune is interested in these elections, although she admits that, “as a result of the pandemic, I have stopped watching television a lot, I have dedicated myself to reading more books, yes, I have looked at some more information on the Internet that usually interests me, so it is not that they have aroused so much interest in me, because I have devoted myself to worrying a little more about myself”.
However, these elections interest her “because I am a mother, I have children, we live in a neighborhood that is getting bigger and bigger and of course they interest me more and more.”
Josune finds out about current affairs above all in the newspaper, on paper, but more and more on Youtube and in digital newspapers, because “this digital revolution has made us used to looking at information on the computer or mobile phone”.
Facing these elections, the Navarrese believes that politicians have “a lot of work”, because “a brutal change has emerged, not only on a digital level, but also on an emotional, psychological, physical level, everything has changed a lot, And they have a lot of work ahead of them.”
However, he believes that politicians do not care much about people’s problems: “I see them distanced. I also understand that, as a result of everything that has happened, not only them, people have distanced themselves a lot, that humanity has been lost a bit ”.
Worried about the future of pensions and their children
In contact with his friends, family and clients of the pillar studio, Josune observes that “there is a lot of anxiety, there is a lot of emotional problem”. For many people, she says, “it has been very difficult for them to leave the house. Above all, you have to focus on health, emotional health, mental health, as well as physical ”.
Josune is autonomous, and experiences in her own flesh the problems of all kinds that this group suffers: “It is very complicated, everything has gone up a lot, you are competing with prices, especially in sports centers, very low, but I have to pay a lot more taxation. Also, now you go to the supermarket and, what you used to leave 50 or 60 euros in a car, now it does not go below 100”.
Like so many Navarrese, Josune is worried about the future of pensions, “because I get the feeling that I won’t have anything left, that’s the feeling I have, that my retirement will come (…) but no pensions will remain because there is no money”.
The Navarrese, mother of two children aged 5 and 8, is also worried about her future: “I get the feeling that what we are going to leave them is going to be very complicated, they are going to have to fight very hard” to find a job.
The conciliation
She is also concerned, like many mothers, about the effects that climate change may have on the lives of her children. “The Earth is what feeds us, it is very important to take care of it, work on it, protect it, it is what makes us live”, she highlights.
Another problem common to many Navarrese men and women is the reconciliation of personal and family life. Josune sometimes makes do with her grandparents, but she doesn’t like her “because they are old”.
“I know they offer services, but many times they fill up, and when I go to enroll my children in a camp or something, there are no more places left. Many times I find it difficult to sign them up for certain activities, and I also think that they should be free. There should be more services for family reconciliation ”, she underlines.
online purchases
Josune is no stranger to the Internet shopping phenomenon either, although “not as much as other people” around her. “I like to go out and buy, go to the supermarket, but I recognize that more and more people tell me that it is more comfortable for them to go online and choose whatever and bring it home. I like to go out, I think that we are dehumanizing ourselves, that we have to go out again, interact with people, ”she says.
Although he prefers local commerce, he admits that “it is true that digital has been an impressive comfort for me. There are certain materials, especially for work, that I find very comfortable buying online and having them brought to me the next day”.
These are just a few vueltapluma reflections of the “average Navarra” that do not have to be shared by all the inhabitants of a community as diverse and plural as Navarra, but that undoubtedly reflect the concerns of a large number of people on the eve of the start of the electoral campaign.