Mar Galcerán and he has already achieved it. The Valencian politician (PP) with Down syndrome has today collected the credentials that give her the right to occupy a seat in the Valencian Cortes. An old dream of this Valencian woman who has dedicated her entire life to fighting to give visibility to people with intellectual disabilities and political activism, which she is passionate about, is fulfilled.
As he commented a few days ago to this newspaper, Mar has defended that he occupies this position with the desire to demonstrate that he is capable of carrying out his responsibility, to give visibility to disabled people and to ask society to "take disability out of its mind." intellectual, that does not see a disability, that sees the person. People with Down syndrome "regardless of disability, we are people," she recalled.
For Galcerán, it is possible to break barriers as long as there are people around "who favor" the achievements that people with different abilities can achieve, and he has warned: "here the barriers that exist are the mental barriers of society, because there are many clichés, there always have been.
He has indicated that he got into politics "out of conviction" and that he likes it because he has always been in it, "from a very young age", and he recalled that he worked for thirteen years in the Presidency of the Generalitat and then passed the first examinations of the Generalitat Valenciana for people with intellectual disabilities.
Carlos Mazón, with whom she maintains a friendly relationship, placed her at number 20 on the regional lists of the last March 28 elections. She was one away from achieving it. But since then, several deputies have been called to occupy positions in the new Valencian administration of the PP and Vox, which has caused what is known as "list movement." In this regard, she insists on her gratitude to the Valencian president: "he believes in what I believe, and he has given me a great opportunity that I plan to take advantage of."
Last week, the plenary session of the Valencian executive approved the appointment of a regional deputy, Ernesto Fernández Pardo, as general director of the Valencian Housing and Land Entity (EVHA), an appointment that has been published in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV). ). The deputy must leave his seat, and Mar Galcerán will replace him in a few days in the first plenary session to be held in the Corts Valencianes. She will be the first member of an autonomous parliament in Spain with Down syndrome.
She explained that she feels "very comfortable" with the PP, in which she is surrounded "by very nice people", and she was grateful that it has supported people with disabilities and that its president, Carlos Mazón, has given her the opportunity first of being secretary of the area of people with different abilities of the party and then of personally betting on her to appear on the regional lists of the 28M elections.
Galcerán has been accompanied by the PP ombudsman in Les Corts, Miguel Barrachina, who has shown her around the chamber and has highlighted that her fight for two decades so that diversity is integrated at all levels and that all people have "the same consideration" now reaches the Valencian Parliament.
The new Valencian deputy is an assistant technician for Home and Kindergarten, she has completed FP in Hospitality and Tourism, and started working in the public service 26 years ago, of which 13 she was acting as interim Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana and, After passing the exams, she moved to the Ministry of Social Welfare, then to the Ministry of Equality and is currently a junior in the Ministry of Health.
