It's Manuel. Manolo Cope. "As Manuel, no one knows me." He was born in 1974, the son of Cordovan emigrants who settled in Novelda. The middle of three brothers, since 6th grade he studied at the Orihuela seminary. "I studied there my entire career, six years, which would be the Humanities career." He was a priest for two years, in Callosa de Segura, although before being ordained he had spent three in Peru, as a cooperator. He is married and has three children ages 15, 13 and 8.
He has worked as a social educator in Cáritas, caring for people with HIV, in Nazareth, and in apartments with minors from broken families. For three years he worked in Comisiones Obreras, in the Federation of Services. He belongs to a movement of Christian workers, the HOAC, which took him to Madrid for four years. His role as head of international relations for this organization to which some two million people from fifteen countries belong, led him to travel frequently to Brussels, Rome and other capitals.
Now, back home, he has been teaching Latin, Greek and Philosophy in the 2nd year of high school for a couple of years. Faced with the topic that he considers the battle of teaching Literature subjects to adolescents to be little less than hell, he assures that, in his case, “it is being a gift; I am enjoying teaching very much, listening to young people, who are very forgotten”. He has belonged to Esquerra Unida since 2010. And he still has time to preside over an association of singer-songwriters, another of his activities.
Is this link between the Christian movements and the Spanish left, which was frequent in the Transition, still valid or has it faded?
The political and social moments are different, but just yesterday we had a meeting of the HOAC comrades who are going to present ourselves in candidacies from all over Spain... in Bilbao, Seville, Huelva, Madrid, Valencia... that sensitivity for being in the workers' organizations, both at the trade union and political levels, it continues to exist. There have been mayors who belonged to the group in Cox, Monóvar and Villena. Ana Barceló herself, although she is not from the HOAC, has a tour there. They are people whose faith has pushed them to a political commitment, and I find myself in that situation. My faith has led me to a political commitment in Alicante with Izquierda Unida, a project with which I have always felt identified, both for the values it represents and for the people who were in this project.
He knows Alicante well, and he knows the part of the city that experiences the most difficulties, areas that many do not contemplate. From your perspective, are things worse than they were 10 or 15 years ago?
What has worsened is the social gap. Inequality has increased, there are some neighborhoods that are very dilapidated and degraded, which need regeneration at all levels. And that over the years has increased. And it is not only in the neighborhoods; the situation of families, exclusion, are more everyday situations than what is seen at first glance. And it is the result of the lack of policies that try to reduce that gap. There is an evident deterioration in the city in many ways, and especially in the social part.
What should be the priorities of the next municipal government team?
We have three previous ones: first, repeal the ordinance of shame, because of what it means to legislate and make policy against the poor, instead of fighting against poverty, we are legislating against the poor. Second, citizen participation. We have a City Council that is ignoring all the organized associative fabric of this city, which is not little, and which also has very serious and very elaborate proposals. I'm not talking about professional entities, but people who are trying to organize themselves and their contributions have a richness that we are wasting, which is a shame. And as a third prior, an audit of the city must be carried out, an exhaustive analysis by neighborhoods and at the sectoral level, to find out how the situation is. If there is no good analysis, the strategies that are put on the table will not work. be the most accurate.
The associative fabric does not marry anyone. They usually have sectoral interests in their neighborhoods, what they want is to improve the lives of their people or their sectors, it is something that is beyond partisanship and the electoral program. Why are we in politics if not for that?
Speaking of politics, he heads a coalition that could have been broader.
It is a confluence of three organizations that I want to value, because in other places these pacts have not been reached, because there were people who did not quite believe that it was possible in Alicante. And despite the fact that the situation was not very optimistic, the fact that we have reached a confluence gives signs of where we want to go, we want to add, we want a project that is broad, in which the entire left can fit. The one who has been noticed has not been us, but the one who has not wanted to go together in a great confluence that I believe could have been a great shock for this city.
It refers to Commitment.
Yes, and it would have been a revulsion because I think that five or six councilors could have been obtained without excessive complexity, a powerful confluence that together with the PSOE would propose a change of government. Now we have to be a little aware of the votes, of how things turn out, that confluence would have allowed us to optimize all the votes of the people on the left in this city.
Do you attach importance to Yolanda Díaz's support for one formation or another?
No, Yolanda I don't think she's coming. In a few months we are going to have a call for elections, which is the Sumar space, which is going to be made up of our formations and also by Compromís, therefore I think that at this moment I would not understand very well that it meant coming to support a of the two candidacies. Her project has a broader perspective, at the state level and I believe that all the formations that believe in a great pact and a great confluence at the level of the general elections must be there. I am just as naive and optimistic, which my colleagues often tell me, but I believe that Podemos will also be at that confluence of Sumar. I understand that Podemos wants to claim its own space and have its prerogatives, but I understand Yolanda who believes that if you want a space for real confluence there should be no prerogatives for any formation, but rather a commitment to a program with transformative proposals.
How did you live the experience of the previous left-wing tripartite? Have they learned their lesson?
It was two and a half years. I think it is necessary to put the duration of that government in context, after twenty years of Partido Popular. And that government of two and a half years was highly mediated by the people who were part of the political organizations. I believe that the people who are now in charge would make possible a government that was truly left-wing, that would reach agreements and proposals that would be feasible. I don't think the people who were there at that time made it possible to have a fluid, reasonable understanding. And let's not fool ourselves, we came from twenty years of ostracism from the PP and any change beyond your party is very difficult for us to move forward with.
The problem usually comes when you have to interweave alliances and programs with other formations. And in this city we have a very large lack of a culture of political dialogue; we usually work in watertight drawers. And in such a big city you have to generate synergies and find the people who make that possible. There are many people disappointed by that failed tripartite, but I think it is necessary to give left-wing parties another chance. And if we bother her again, let them ostracize us for twenty years if they want.
In management issues, such as cleaning, transportation, how do you see the state of public services?
We, as a political organization, have always advocated for the remunicipalization of public services. It is a key issue, which we are not going to give up. We will have to take steps in this direction, because the only thing that privatization generates is a lack of control, because it is an external company that manages it, and because the only way to strengthen public services is to generate stable workforces, workers who are part of of the City Council... it is true that we have a City Council with many workers and workers, and there are again their demands for the professional career, because in four years nothing of what was agreed with them in 2019 has been done, but the public management has to be on the horizon.
That is what we defend and will defend, another thing is the strength that we have, and that there are companies with contracts that will have to be enforced down to the last detail, because it cannot be that the contracts that cost the city the most money are the ones that have the worst They're working. And be careful, in Elche they have a city that is a pleasure to walk through its streets, we will have to see how these services have been contracted, what are the conditions of the specifications, what screws must be tightened so that this work is audited.
Alicante continues with a general plan from the 1980s. If you are commissioned to govern in the next term, what are the lines that should mark the development of the city?
We have a more than outdated plan, but this would link it to the city audit. According to the analysis that we carry out, the proposals that are on the table have to be projected according to the model of the city that we want. If we want a more sustainable city, it has to be reflected; if we want a city that respects pedestrians more than drivers... projecting the city model we can plan how to carry it out.
If they do well, it is most likely that Ana Barceló will be mayor. Do they have a good relationship?
Yes, we have known each other for many years, through many shared environments before politics. And we have a very good relationship, very fluid, with different political projects, but I think we would understand each other well. That's why I was telling you that in the end people are very important. I offer myself as vice mayor of Ana with great pleasure if we have a good result. And I think we are going to have it, because there are many excited people. I have been very familiar with the social and cultural fabric of this city for more than 17 years, and I know and know many people from this city. There are many people who are excited and who are going to vote for us because they understand that our proposal is the one that can generate the most enthusiasm and confidence.
What municipal areas do you see yourself leading?
Let's see, I have also been secretary of my Ampa, I have three children of school age, so Education, everything that has to do with social services, Culture... but let's not forget that there are some councils that are the ones that decide more than others... Treasury, Urbanism... I imagine that it will enter into a negotiation logic that when the moment arrives will be put on the table. On a personal level, my relationship with Culture, Education and Social Services would be councilors in which we could feel relatively comfortable.
I suppose you were not very surprised to see the transition from Julia Llopis to Vox.
Not at all. It didn't surprise me at all. In fact, I don't know why it was in the news, because it was more than evident that even in its forms it was not a woman... it has never kept its forms, and that is one of the hallmarks of the extreme right: go through life overwhelming instead of making proposals. Curiously, she comes from Concapa, from a Catholic identity with which I do not feel identified, and for me she is the antithesis of what the faith and commitment of a believing person should be. But the one who is portrayed with all these changes and manipulations is the PP itself, which welcomes into its bosom people of this spirit, with these ways. People from social entities have told me a lot about the ways in which they treated the people who benefited from social services in this city. There are colleagues who are from the PP with whom I am even friends, I have no problem, you can think differently, but people who dedicate themselves to politics must keep their manners, and more so with the people who are the beneficiaries of the services social.
Housing has become a central theme. What solutions would you apply in Alicante?
Welcome to the Housing Law, even though it has not been as ambitious as it should be. Héctor Illueca, a colleague from Podemos, is doing important work in the Ministry. It would be necessary to first increase the public housing stock, one of the great deficits that we have. Rental prices would have to be capped and touristification faced, because this is a tourist city and rental prices are closely linked to this entire process. This causes gentrification, that we have neighborhoods that suffer from this problem in an urgent way and concrete measures must be taken. And generate social rents in cases where the situations are of social exclusion, which unfortunately are many in Alicante. How housing is being managed by Social Services is a bleeding issue. A councilor from Elche told me that entire families from Alicante are leaving, like a Colombian family with three children. Here they wanted the three minors to go to the Provincial Home and separate them from their parents because they did not have a home. And there was no problem of attachment or lack of bond... And they have had to go to Elche where they have been given emergency housing until they can get a flat, that's what politics is for.
And something must be done for young people, who cannot become independent. Kids from 25 to 30 years old who could start an independent life is unthinkable with the prices they have to pay, with part-time jobs that give them what the house is worth. A lot can be done at the municipal level.
