Vox landed in Parliament for the first time three years ago, and did so with 11 seats. Ignacio Garriga (Sant Cugat, 1987), who was clear that he wanted to repeat as a candidate, competes in the elections with a harsh speech about illegal immigration, which he links to crime, and proposes building a "post-separatist" Catalonia.
You have left your position as spokesperson for Vox to repeat as a candidate in Catalonia, what do you aspire to?
I aspire to lead the post-separatism Catalonia that many Catalans long for. This legislature we have managed to open debates that the parties had decided had no place in the Parliament. It has been one of the great successes.
Do you approach these elections with new premises?
It is essential to put on the table the debate on security related to immigration, put an end to the political industry, this waste of money, even embezzled, of separatism and socialism, and reinforce public services. And recover the political freedom that has been lost to be able to disagree with that unique thought. You are not choosing between Illa, Aragonès or Garriga, you are choosing between continuing with separatist Catalonia or building post-separatist Catalonia
But the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, leads the polls.
Illa is not an alternative, she is just another separatist. This has been one of the great political scams in Catalonia, he denied pardons, he denied amnesties and I am sure that he has signed a referendum on independence with Pedro Sánchez and Aragonès. Vox offers a project to the 8 million Catalans that does not question anyone about what they voted for in the last elections.
Is it also addressed to the pro-independence electorate?
I appeal to all Catalans. On 12-M we risk being able to look to the future with prosperity. Kick the board once and for all to stop having politicians who have exploited Catalonia for their ideological or separatist purposes. Ordinary Catalans do not want to see how 12,000 people die waiting for help from the dependency, or that there is an average of 100 days to be treated. Catalans want to enjoy what this land was.
He says that Vox has opened the debate on illegal immigration. Aliança Catalana and, in another record, Junts have also done it.
The immigration debate was censored in Parliament. Illegal immigration has brought growing insecurity in Catalonia, and requires urgent measures since it is changing the reality of our neighborhoods and our way of life. We cannot accept that in Catalonia in the last year murders have increased by 60%, rapes by 30%. End the call effect, protect security on the streets and send a message that it is possible to recover those neighborhoods that were once safe and turned into places of rape, stabbings and shootings.
Shielding the call effect, how do you curb people's desire to seek a better life?
Catalonia is the community where the most illegal immigration has arrived, and this is related to insecurity. The call effect in Catalonia is much higher than in other parts of Spain because the Generalitat allocates more than 50% of social housing to people who have just arrived, as well as guaranteed income. We are at stake if social aid goes directly to the Catalans. We have to apply our skills. We must absolutely refuse to participate in this distribution of illegal immigrants in which Pedro Sánchez has plunged Spain. Lead immigration blockades at the borders and mass deportations. For the love of the Catalans and the Spanish. We want Catalonia to remain Catalonia, and not become Algeria or Morocco.
Block the distribution of migrants?
Catalonia does not have the capacity to welcome when we have a social exclusion or poverty rate for Catalan families of 24%. We want young people to be able to go out safely, not be worried about their friends getting stabbed or raped. Strong forceful measures.
How will the result of the Catalan elections influence Spanish politics?
I hope that separatism does not rule in Catalonia and if we achieve this it will be the previous step for Sánchez to fall from Moncloa.
Alejandro Fernández is the PP candidate, can he take away votes?
Vox has just added to its candidacy a young referent of the resistance, the former president of S'ha Acabat, Julia Calvet. It is a sign that this new generation has seen in our alternative the hope to build a prosperous Catalonia.
Given an eventual victory without a majority for the PSC, Vox is considering facilitating the investiture.
Is Illa willing to guarantee schooling in Spanish for Catalans? To end illegal immigration? With growing insecurity? With the political industry that he himself has built? Will he commit to national unity and break all pacts with separatism? No. Thus, Vox could not support Salvador Illa. The PSC is also complicit in the cordon sanitaire that has been imposed on Vox in Parliament, denying the right to representation to 200,000 Catalans.
Would this give way to an independence government?
I go out to win. Nowhere is it written that we have to live under a socialist or separatist government.
You were talking about the young vote. Reports have been published indicating that women are more left-wing, also in a feminist reading. It is understood that his speech that denies sexist violence alienates young Spanish women.
Vox is committed to the fight against the scourge of violence against women. I deny those stigmas that young men are right-wing and women are left-wing. What do the women of Catalonia prefer, governments that have allocated millions to feminism consultancies that have been of no use? to parties that have released predators and rapists with their laws of only yes means yes? Women in Catalonia would be safer if Vox governed
He has not mentioned Carles Puigdemont until now
Puigdemont is an anomaly this 12-M, he is the result of Pedro Sánchez's betrayal of amnesty to some criminals. The discourse cannot be polarized again around a referendum.
