She has been a minister for 13 months. She begins to get used to speaking more in Spanish than in Valencian. But she soon remembers her roots. Morant does not remove his smile this afternoon, at the headquarters of the Government Delegation in the C. Valenciana, before a long meeting table. Less than 24 hours ago, Congress approved the Science Law, her great project at this time, and despite the setbacks in the final stretch, it ended well for her. “Spain is today a better country, without a doubt”, he says, after the law and years of failing science. Among his immediate plans, one to attract escaped talent. “We do not have exact calculations of how many scientists left, but we do know that 11,000 places were destroyed”. Another master line of his management (and of the Government, sentence) is deconcentration: “Spain is made better from all of Spain.”
Do you remember why you entered politics?
Because I received an invitation from the mayor of my city, imbued with socialist values. And because I come from a humble family, in which they would not have been able to give their daughters the opportunities that they did not have if it had not been for the welfare system that was created with the socialist governments. I thought it was an opportunity to give back to society what it had given me and to encourage the continuation of that generational agreement.
Have you often remembered your humble origins in the offices of the ministry?
I don’t forget because I’m the same person. My mother told me ‘Daughter, your grandfather was a driver and now you have a driver’. In my grandmother’s house there was no shower. My mother grew up without her. And I remember when she was a little girl she would open my grandmother’s kitchen cupboard and there was nothing, or she would open my clothes cupboard and every season she would have a pair of jeans and two sweatshirts. I can not forget because it has been my life and there are many people who have that life. Politics is for humble people who have nothing but the system.
Do you have the feeling that science is beginning to lose prominence to the extent that pandemic begins to be past?
No way. In the latest CIS surveys, citizens continue to demand greater investment in science. The pandemic was such a hard blow that it showed that role that saves our lives. But the eruption of the volcano and the fires too. 290,000 hectares have been burned so far this year and last year 60,000 were burned. Clearly climate change is placing us in a different scenario and science is included in that fight.
And do we have to get used to living with these big fires that are happening lately, because climate change is not reversible from one year to the next?
What we are discovering is that the fires are no longer just in the summer. And we, who have the best firefighting system in all of Europe, have discovered that it is not enough. Everything that was written must be rewritten. Science deniers say that the 2030 agenda and against climate change is our religion, but it is science, and it can kill us in a fire or with a virus. We must rewrite the regulations for the mountains to work them better and the coordination protocols so that what we saw in Castilla y León does not happen again, where they still did not have the brigades.
Are we again not arriving on time now in the energy crisis, because we are once again in deficit and need to import it?
We could have been better prepared if the PP had not put a tax on the sun that stopped the deployment of renewables, but today we are the best positioned country. Our country already produces more energy than it consumes. The great challenge, which also goes through science, is how we store that energy that we produce in excess. And it is also to see how green hydrogen, which is the source of the future, can be produced not by consuming gas, but by using clean energy. That’s where the science is right now. That is the great legacy to our future generations, that Spain is a country rich in clean energy production and in exporting it.
Are you optimistic about that future?
Absolutely, because we already consume very little gas compared to other countries.
PBut then geopolitical and economic interests come in.
More than interest is blackmail. Europe has wanted to stand up to Putin in this unjust war with Ukraine and is blackmailing us through energy and gas. But Europe is clearly moving towards a new energy model that goes through clean energy. Another thing is immediacy.
We wouldn’t have gone so fast in the energy transformation without the war, right?
Surely. But we as a country were already deploying renewables like never before. Now we have to continue with that roadmap and not let ourselves be dizzy by the noise. Germany would like to have Spain’s position in terms of energy.
Despite this, are security measures now inevitable? energy saving?
Europe is facing a challenge that it did not expect, but Spain has obtained two exceptions that show that we are in a good situation: the one that makes the price of electricity between two and three times lower than our neighboring countries and the one that says that we only have to apply the 7% discount on consumption, half of the rest. In just one month we have reduced consumption by 8%. Hoteliers and merchants have complied, not out of obligation, and the only one trying to block the measures is the PP. Surely it responds to some interest.
Although we are in a better situation than the rest of Europe, the message from the Government for autumn and winter is that we are in for a tough time and that there may be more restrictions?
The message is one of calm, but of prudence. The Spanish economic system is holding up, also in terms of employment. The Government is not unaware of the difficulties of families and we continually put in place measures to suffocate them. One of the measures that the PP is also discussing is the new tax that we are going to put on electricity companies and banks, because it cannot be that the collective effort always falls on the same shoulders.
That the big energy companies are increasing profits in this context is not justifiable?
Neither justifiable nor decent. And that’s why the tax to redistribute what they call benefits that fell from heaven. But they do not fall from the sky, but from the pocket of the citizens.
The State has also increased the collection due to inflation and price increases. Is a tax cut possible or is it unfeasible for the left?
The Government has returned this collection to citizens not in the form of lower taxes, but with measures for specific sectors. The excess collection that inflation has caused are just the 15,000 million that the Government has mobilized in aid. We are the EU country that has mobilized the most money in relation to its GDP. Feijóo’s message is perverse, because the tax cut does not affect everyone equally. However, raising scholarships, free transportation, capping the price of butane or lowering the electricity tax does have a direct impact on all families and especially on the most vulnerable.
Is there a will to turn to the left of the Government? I say this because of that tax on the big energy companies and Pedro Sánchez’s trip to America.
The PSOE was born from the left, it is our DNA and we continue in the same place, on the side of progressive policies and accompanying the most vulnerable and the middle and working classes.
Is the slogan to be tougher now with Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to reflect that he is worse than Casado despite appearances?
No, what happens is that Mr. Feijóo two months ago talked about lowering the temperatures of the thermostats and now he thinks it’s outrageous.
Feijóo says that a PSOE-PP coalition would solve many problems in Spain. Do you think so?
But then vote against everything proposed by the PSOE. What kind of coalition are you proposing? Either he lies when he speaks or he corrects himself when voting.
Is polarization inevitable? He will say that the PP is to blame, but the PP says that this government does not call them and does not dialogue. Is there any possibility of real and effective dialogue?
The PP lies when it says that the Government does not dialogue with them. Mr. Feijóo has been sitting with the president and they have a document of minimum agreements that they do not want to comply with. The PP has received the same calls as the rest of the groups and is returning from the Senate to Congress all the laws it can to see if it boycotts them, such as the one on Science. Therefore, he is making a cunning policy, he has not taken this legislature for granted since its inception. It has delegitimized the Government and has installed us in a permanent electoral campaign sensation.
Does the coalition government work better with the current composition, with Yolanda Díaz as vice president and without Pablo Iglesias?
It is an opinion that I cannot give because I was not with Iglesias, but I would answer that it works the same. It is the first experience of a coalition government in Spain and it has proven effective in the worst conditions: with a pandemic and a war.
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Now that you are getting to know Madrid, why does Isabel Díaz Ayuso attract so much attention?
Well, he is the closest thing to Donald Trump that we have in Spain. In a pandemic he believed that the enemy was the Government, when he was a virus. He has the screeching prominence of controversy and noise. It is his style and now he is leading the PP.
“Reforming financing will be possible or not hand in hand with politics. It is not a matter for the Government”
Why is there no decisive progress in the reform of the regional financing system? It is true that there have never been as many resources as there are now, but is the Government doing everything on its part to make this reform possible?
The reform of the regional financing system is necessary and fair.
But is it possible, because the system has expired since 2014 and no decisive progress has been observed?
It will be possible or not hand in hand with politics. It is not a government issue. For the first time, a proposal has been made to which the different communities have informed, but the financing system will only change if there is a real will that is later reflected in a vote in Congress. Are the parties prepared for this change in the financing system? Well, I don’t know how to answer, but the Executive is doing its job, which is putting forward proposals.
Partial, because there is no complete proposal for a new model.
It is the initial proposal of the Government, which is collecting the different observations of the communities. But if what you observe is that there is no will to change the model, then the Government is not the one that can change it, even though our will is that.
Is being a candidate for mayor of Valencia an option for you?
It is not.
Are you sure you say that? Politics sometimes takes strange turns.
I just don’t know how to answer this question that comes out of nowhere. We are sometimes forced to talk about issues that are not in our heads. The president has given me the great opportunity of my life by electing me Minister of Science and that is where they will find me in the next year and a half.
So your closest political option would be to head the list for Valencia to the Congress of Deputies in 2023?
It is again a crystal ball question. I can’t answer you. I have no plan.
And do you think that the PSPV has to start preparing the stage after Ximo Puig?
What he is preparing is the Puig scenario president again from the Generalitat, which is what interests us all as Valencians.