Papi Robles speaks to La Vanguardia after the extraordinary plenary session called by the mayor of València, María José Catalá, with the purpose of criticizing the pacts that have served to invest Pedro Sánchez. It is Joan Ribó's last plenary session as spokesperson for Compromís, a challenge that, from now on, she takes on. And she does so in a complicated situation after losing the May municipal elections and the Generalitat government.
What are going to be the main axes of your opposition? How will Compromís change with your arrival to the spokesperson?
The mission of Compromís has always been to respond to what the residents of the city of Valencia need. For this reason, we have to carry out exhaustive supervision of everything that María José Catalá does (and what she promises and does not do) and, as the first opposition party and the only possible replacement for this ultra government, make a proposal for an alternative government. . We understand that the people of Valencia need hope and we will give it to them. As we have seen, Catalá does not care about the city and what he seeks is to place himself in state controversies to advance his personal career. One of our priorities is that the city has to be configured with and for the neighbors and not exclusively for tourists.
But it is true that this touristification and gentrification has worsened during the Compromís and PSPV governments. You didn't know how to stop it.
It must be taken into account that the policies that can be made by the Administration do not move as fast as social changes. We have changed the housing policy and we have started to build public housing. We would have liked to build apartments and buildings more quickly. Initiatives were launched such as trial and error, which even the mayor now uses after criticizing her, and we proposed taking advantage of the state housing law to declare Valencia a tension zone with the aim of regulating rental prices.
But the objective was not achieved.
I would have liked it if we had been able to lower the price of housing and for everyone to have access to it; It hasn't been like that, but things haven't changed in eight years. In addition, prices have skyrocketed, among other things, because the city has put itself on the map due to the good policies that have been made.
Would you like to be a candidate for Mayor in 2027?
What I like is to be central in the work of the teams. I like to take teams, unite them, that each one has their role and that we can be a tool to change things. That means that whatever role I have to assume – I have no problem having a more secondary one – I will assume it. My aspiration is to change the world and that can be done from different aspects.
Despite the turbulence at the beginning, PP and Vox have reached a government agreement and have approved their first budgets, starting a legislature of some stability. Its line is clear: tax reductions, changes in mobility... What is the Compromís roadmap?
Valencia has changed a lot. We are committed to ensuring that our children can walk around the city without fear of being run over, a city that is friendly to people, with pedestrianized areas and traffic calming that allows, in turn, to fight against climate change. We need a city of green areas that allows temperatures to drop and we have to look towards the garden; The garden needs institutions to stay alive. We also want a city that has increasingly widespread public services, with decent public schools for all families and a good primary care network.
And an appreciation. PP and Vox have signed a paper, but they are not stable. They have not agreed or presented a Government plan, we do not know what they are going to do. What we do know is that there is an exchange of favors and interests.
That city model that you defend is the one that they have tried to implement these eight years and with which they ran for election without success. Why do you think he failed at the polls?
I don't do a failure reading. We have been eight years with one more councilor in the government than the opposition and now we are one less. Things have always been very tight. Before the elections, a municipal barometer was carried out on the management of the local government and it passed with flying colors. It has not been due to the work of the Government team. I think we were so focused on management that we failed to sell and communicate to the public. Furthermore, there was a state context that made the story either Feijóo or Sánchez. Many people went to vote in that code and not in the city code and that hurt us. When the soufflé subsides and the debate is about the city, Compromís has the best city project and we will win again.
You have always been very forceful with the expansion of the port of Valencia, do you think that after the investiture the blockade on the expansion will remain?
I believe that there will be no socialist minister who will sign the expansion of the port. We have had this debate on the table for 8 years and we have seen the Socialist Party continuously pass the buck. No socialist minister will sign the expansion because they know perfectly well that it does not comply with environmental guarantees and that, if they sign it, it will end up in court, as citizens have already warned. They have had every opportunity to implement it and they have not done so. They know that it is incompatible to advance an infrastructure like this and not destroy the beaches and L'Albufera.
Why was this agreement not signed in the investiture pact that was reached between Compromís and the PSOE as you claimed?
I would like it to have been there, but the agreements have to be signed by both parties and the PSOE has not wanted to sign that.
Are you satisfied with the lack of prominence of Compromís, compared to other nationalist forces, in the investiture?
I think that at Compromís we have made a lot of progress. In the end, we have three deputies [accounts to Esquerra Unida] who are having a lot of influence in Sumar's space. We have to analyze where we come from, we have never been the PNV or the Catalan forces that have had a lot of influence in other governments, but we are moving forward. Things are not built from today to tomorrow. We are configuring a state space that responds to many territorial sensitivities.
What guarantees do you have that this time Pedro Sánchez will comply with the Valencian agenda?
The same ones that the rest of the forces that have agreed with the PSOE have. The socialists know that they have signed agreements with different parties and they have to comply with them. This same question can be transferred to Puigdemont.
Junts has already threatened that if Sánchez does not comply with his agreements they will withdraw their support. Will Compromís do it?
We have an agreement with the Valencians to solve their problems. If the parties with which we agree to find solutions betray us, those agreements are no longer valid.
The fact that Pedro Sánchez does not comply with his agreements and does not take into account the Valencian agenda would reinforce the PP's discourse and could have dire consequences for the Valencian left.
I believe that the Valencian left will go one way or another depending on what we do, not what Madrid does. It is true that we will have to position ourselves so that these agreements are fulfilled, and that also includes the PSPV deputies who are in Madrid and who have to comply with the mandate that the Valencian people have given them to achieve fair financing.
What do you think of the agreements that the PSOE has signed with other forces and that have generated so much criticism?
The first thing I value is that these agreements are public and transparent, something that does not happen in the Valencia City Council or in the Generalitat. I think that these agreements represent that we live in a State that has many different sensitivities and I like that. I like a State that responds to the casuistry of each territory. We come from a context of bipartisanship where one party arrived and swept; and, now, we have a multiparty system deeply rooted in the territory in which we have to respond to territorial needs and I consider that to be progress. Madrid is not the epicenter and we must respond to other sensitivities.
Would you like Compromís to have the negotiating capacity of Catalans and Basques?
Of course. The stronger we are, the more the rights of Valencians will be reflected in the agreements.
There is an iconic photo from 2015 from election night in which Mónica Oltra, Joan Ribó and Enric Morera appear. Oltra left the front line, Ribó has announced that he is no longer the spokesperson in the City Council and Morera is now a senator. Who now leads Compromís?
That photo shows that Compromís is a good leadership school. It is normal for parties to have a renewal, which is what is happening. We have many people who are on the front line, but Compromís has never needed, although Mónica had a very strong weight, a single leadership. We are capable of having choral leadership that makes the coalition work. Furthermore, there are many people who are already working outside the spotlight.
And Joan Baldoví?
It is a different profile than Mónica, who was built as a very guerrilla profile in the opposition. Baldoví is a very well-known and recognized person with a profile more like Ribó's. They are slower, but they are moral leaders within the coalition with spectacular weight.
You know the coalition well from the inside. In Initiative there have been casualties with criticism of the management, Més Compromís is waiting to hold a congress... These situations of internal turbulence do not seem to help the opposition much.
For me, the better the parties that make up the coalition are, the better. I will always do my part to make sure everyone is as comfortable as possible. We have to facilitate the decision-making mechanisms within Compromís and that means all going together; I don't care about the shape. What people expect is that we look outside, make policies and proposals and solve their problems. Our line is clear, we are a feminist, environmentalist and left-wing party and with these bases we are capable of building an exciting proposal for 2027.
How does Sumar fit in there?
I don't close myself to anything. We have shown that we are open to reaching agreements based on needs. In the Valencian Country, Compromís is the hegemonic force of the left-left. We will talk about everything, but the basis for setting up an exciting project here is us.
