Pilar Mazo and Ana Lumbreras
Logroño, (EFE).- The candidate of the popular to preside over the Government of La Rioja, Gonzalo Capellán, has affirmed to EFE that he does not lose “not a minute” in what is not the project with which he will present himself to the next elections on May 28.
“I worry about what depends on me and I respect everyone,” added Capellán, who has not ruled on the creation of the new “Por La Rioja” party, whose promoters include people linked, some already ex-affiliated, to the PP and PR+.
The people of La Rioja, he has insisted, are not concerned about whether there are more ups or downs in the political parties and do not consider the “internal bubble” of the political formations to be important, since what they want is “real and close attention to their problems”. .
The one who was Minister of Education, Culture and Tourism of La Rioja between 2011 and 2014 in a PP government chaired by Pedro Sanz, has reiterated that he is not concerned about the operation of other political forces.
“I respect what everyone does, but I come to build my project. I have enough to build it from closeness and listen to people about their real issues ”, she stressed.
“Let’s not get into an internal bubble in which we only talk about things that don’t matter to people,” according to the candidate, who believes that politicians “should never have stopped worrying about what really reaches people.”
“The internal life of the parties is of interest to very few people”, assured Gonzalo Capellán (Haro, La Rioja, 1972), for whom “this long time out of politics” -more than 8 years- has taught him “the mistakes that should not be made.
Therefore, if he came to do the same thing that has been done up to now, “I was not here. I don’t waste my time or my life on that. I come because I believe in this project of the PP and in the future of my land”, he emphasized.
Recover 30,000 PP voters
Currently, he is fully dedicated to touring the towns of La Rioja, to being close to its inhabitants, learning about their problems in order to offer solutions and, based on this, building a project that “a vast majority of La Riojans trust. It is my only thermometer to know that this is going well ”.
In this closeness to La Rioja society, Capellán has noted that, until now, “the PP did not have the confidence of an important part of La Rioja.”
“I have made a diagnosis since we arrived and reality is stubborn, but in life you have to operate with data and solid, empirical bases,” he acknowledged.
He has admitted the drop in votes towards the PP of La Rioja, with 53,925 obtained in the last regional elections of 2019, which contrast, he said, with “the more than 80,0000 who placed their trust in this political project” when he left this region in 2014 for being Education Councilor for the UK and Ireland, which he held until January 2020.
“I wonder what has happened to those 30,000 remaining people” who have lost confidence in the PP or have gone to other parties, he reflected.
For this reason, its objective is not to analyze “if we are 50 more or 50 less, 200 more or 200 less, within the organization, but how do I recover those 30,000 people so that they trust this project again through their vote to govern” .
“I have come to do things with a new look, how do I win the confidence and illusion of those 30,000 people from La Rioja”, that “people understand what we are doing, that there is a leadership and a solid project and, recovering the illusion, to be again a majority force that governs in La Rioja, which is fundamental”, he said.
“Everything else -he has emphasized-, not only does it not concern me, but I would not dedicate my time to that. I dedicate it to what is worth it”.
The parties have to leave
According to Capellán, “one of the problems of all political parties has been to become self-absorbed and not see that they are at the service of society, that it is necessary to go outside and have the support of the people.”
For that support “I am going and I dedicate myself to that: to build a party where there is a majority, social support, from the people of La Rioja. Everything else does not take away my time or attention ”, he insisted.
“For this reason, politics and the parties are as they are,” Chaplain has understood, also convinced of the deterioration of politics.
Of the 174 municipalities in La Rioja, the popular candidate has already traveled 124 in the free time left by his classes at the University of La Rioja as a professor of History, an activity that he will maintain until the electoral campaign begins.
This tour of the municipalities of La Rioja is “essential” and is something that has been imposed as “a duty” since he was appointed the PP candidate for the presidency of the regional government, convinced that closeness to citizens is essential for Trust your project and him. EFE