Logroño, (EFE) make La Rioja and Logroño a better place.
This is how the PSOE candidates for the regional Presidency, Concha Andreu; and to the Mayor of Logroño, Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, when answering ten almost nothing political questions in order to know his most personal profile.
Both opt to be re-elected in their current positions: Andreu, a 56-year-old oenologist and president of the La Rioja Government; and Hermoso de Mendoza, a 50-year-old economist and mayor of the La Rioja capital.
1.-Do you have social networks? Do you use them a lot?
-Concha Andreu: I have networks and I try to use them a lot because it is a very interesting medium to reach young people and send them interesting messages.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: I have Twitter, which I use to remind me of the books I read, but I don’t use social networks.
2.-What television series do you recommend?
-Concha Andreu: The truth is that I don’t have much time to watch series. The last one I remember seeing was the Danish film “Borgen”, in which the good work of women in politics is valued. I also really liked “Historia de un verano”, by the young director from La Rioja, Luis Arrojo, a series of only two episodes.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: I watch few series, I like movies and reading books more. I would recommend a classic movie, like “The Mission”.
3.-The trip that you liked the most? Which one is pending?
-Concha Andreu: When I was young and a student, the trips I made with the choir singing around Europe. Good trips are the ones I take with my husband and my two children, even if they don’t last long. We were in a cork oak forest watching the cork removal in Cádiz, with donkeys, and it was impressive. I have yet to go with them to a mountain refuge, where there is no coverage, and force us to play “La granja”, a board game.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: I have traveled a lot, but the one I liked the most is one in Sicily 20 years ago. I have yet to return to Italy, to the area of Puglia, the part of the heel of the “boot”.
4.-How are housework distributed at home?
-Concha Andreu: The two of us coordinate, but my husband has been carrying the main load for a long time. He knows what is needed and goes shopping. My mother is also on duty at home.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: I usually do the ironing, cooking and, from time to time, I do the baths and other housework. My wife collects and she is the one who carries the greatest weight.
5.-What is the best legacy of your parents? What legacy would you like to leave your children?
-Concha Andreu: Education, which allows you to get where you want to go; and honesty, to grow apart from difficulties. The effort made by my parents, he an agricultural mechanic and she sewing at home, to give the three sisters a career is what we are transmitting to our children. Then, let each one develop his skills, but with education and honesty.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: My mother always told me to try to be a good person, whatever I did. My father, who had to work in the fields at the age of 14, asked me to always take advantage of the opportunity to study because he takes you anywhere. Children should not be bothered too much, give them freedom to follow their own path and educate them in values such as solidarity and responsibility.
6.-What is the best memory of your childhood?
-Concha Andreu: Going to camps, with Javi the priest, who organized them in Anguiano, Villar del Río and Munilla, where we have enjoyed ourselves, sung and gone on excursions in the mountains. I fondly remember Javi, Marta, Ruperto and some friends who are no longer here.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: My childhood memories are always associated with games, those endless afternoons with no schedule to play soccer and basketball with friends in schools and squares in Logroño.
7.-The biggest challenge of your professional career?
-Concha Andreu: From the previous one, making the best wine from La Rioja, taking care of the product from the vineyard. Now it is putting La Rioja in the place it deserves, neither more nor less than another community.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: My biggest challenge is how to continue building Logroño as the best city in the world to live in. Improve the city, make it more tolerant, educated, prosperous and open.
8.-Is it more of getting up early or staying up late?
-Concha Andreu: I get up early, during the week I get up around 6:30. If one day in the campaign, due to some mismatch, I get up at 7:30, my mother tells me: “You didn’t get up very early today.”
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: Lately I get up quite early, but I also like to stay up all night. I do both because I sleep less.
9.-Are you an athlete? What sport do you practice?
-Concha Andreu: I used to be an athlete, but now, as an older person, I stretch and practice Pilates at 7 in the morning when I have time. I really like it because it relaxes and expands lung capacity and core strength.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: I have always been closely linked to basketball, as a team game it seems fantastic to me.
10.-Which other candidate would you go with for wine?
-Concha Andreu: With any candidate, even the one who is too lazy to greet me, the one from the PP (Gonzalo Capellán), reminds me of the days of Pedro Sanz, who turned his face on you. La Rioja is open and outside of political circles you have to talk, dialogue and be welcoming people, as we La Riojans are.
-Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza: I would go with Alberto Bretón, the candidate of Por La Rioja because, by not being allowed to compete within the PP, he has had the courage and rennet to go out and create another political party. It is the same thing that happened to Julio Revuelta and other people who within the PP neither have the capacity nor the possibility to compete democratically.
