In 2021, VOX entered the Parliament of Catalonia for the first time. He did it with 11 deputies and after receiving the support of almost 8% of the voters. The political context, in which many Catalans felt deceived by a PSOE that was already in sympathy with the separatism with which it directly governs today, and disappointed by a half-hearted response from the Popular Party – then in the national Government – to the separatist coup of 2017, propelled this formation to become the first national force in the Chamber. Since then, a lot has changed in Catalonia, for the worse. He VOX candidate to preside over the Catalan Parliament, Ignacio Garrigadenounces in this interview how the policies of separatists and socialists and the connivance of the popular ones have led the region to a scenario even worse than that of 2021 and that has little to do with the defended “coexistence” of sanchismo.
This Friday VOX closes the Catalan election campaign in Barcelona after many days touring the region, what feelings have you had?
Very good. We see a lot of affection in the street, there is a lot of hope, a lot of hope and, above all, a lot of tiredness of the drift to which separatism and socialism have led us for so many years. And that is being seen in the actions. They are all signs of encouragement, they have given us a message, which is very revealing, of: “Do not take a step back and do not abandon us.” And obviously we are going to take advantage of these remaining hours to continue conveying that message that on May 12 we have a lot at stake.
In 2021 you entered the Parliament of Catalonia with 11 deputies and became the first national force in this Chamber. What differences do you find between Catalonia then and Catalonia now?
In terms of education, security and freedoms it is much worse than a few years ago. But the Catalans have a political formation, with the leader of the opposition, which is VOX, who has managed to reopen those debates of the consensus of silence, from the CUP to the Popular Party, on issues that they did not want to talk about. They did not want to talk about the growing insecurity that we suffer in the streets of Barcelona, they did not want to talk about that Islamization that has promoted separatism at the hands of the Socialist Party. They didn’t want to talk about the fact that we Catalans are becoming more suffocated every day because they cover us with 15 of our own taxes if not climate taxes. The Catalans have seen that there is a political formation that has split its body, never better said. In these three years they have been given a voice in the Parliament and separatism and socialism have been confronted like never before and many rugs have been raised, because many Catalans did not know how the political industry has embezzled so many millions from the Spanish people. The most important thing is that they have seen that VOX is telling them that we can build a post-separatism Catalonia, which will be difficult, but that there is a political formation willing to fight neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street to make it a reality.
«The media wants to silence us because they do not want to show that there is a political formation that is really giving voice to the problems of Catalans»
In the campaign, what the media says has a lot of influence. Since the general elections there has been a change in how VOX information is covered; Before it was done in a very critical way and now it seems that you do not exist. What do you think is the reason for the change?
Clearly because VOX is giving voice to the problems of Catalans. He is the one who is talking about what Catalans suffer in the streets, in their neighborhoods, because of some politicians, from the PSC, Esquerra and Junts, who have pushed Catalonia onto a slope of decline. The media wants to silence us because they do not want to show that there is a political group that is really giving voice to the problems of Catalans, that has solutions for those problems and that, above all, is pointing out those responsible. Mr. Illa now presents himself as an alternative saying that he has not governed Catalonia, but he is lying, because it is his party that has governed for ten years.
Not only in the media, you have been excluded during this campaign from a debate between candidates at the Pompeu Fabra University and from another organized by Cadena SER. You have criticized the PP’s attitude towards this exclusion, what would VOX have done if this had happened to Alejandro Fernández’s formation?
They have tried to exclude us from debates and they have taken time away from us in the debates in which we have participated. Mrs. Ana Pastor silenced me permanently and on TV3 the presenter did everything possible so that she could not speak as much as she deserved. In fact, we have filed a complaint with the Electoral Board against the Sixth debate for flagrantly violating the rights of Catalans who wanted to hear our proposals. We would not have participated in this anti-democratic cordon against a political party if it had been done to the Popular Party. We are very clear who the enemy is: separatism and socialism. We do not come to compete with other political formations, we want to be alongside the Catalans to give that message of hope and convey to the separatists and socialists that their time of impunity is over.
VOX is one of the parties that attracts the most young votes in Catalonia. What do you think it is due to?
Young people are suffering from the Catalonia that socialists and separatists have managed and they are fed up. It is a Catalonia in which if they go out they are afraid of being assaulted or stabbed, in which girls have to ask their parents to pick them up after leaving the clubs for fear of being raped. They see a very dark future in which they cannot even access home ownership, in which salaries do not allow them to make ends meet; They have seen how their schools have been used to indoctrinate them by imposing Catalan on them. And on top of that they see how their classrooms are filled with activists to fill their heads with ideas about feminism and gender ideology. It is normal that every time in Catalonia, and in Spain in general, there are more young people who are in an attitude of rebellion.
«One in every three rapes committed in Spain is in Catalonia. Neither separatism nor feminists denounce that.»
One of the main issues of this campaign has been illegal immigration and insecurity. How serious is this problem in the region?
It is one of the main problems that Catalans have and that only VOX is denouncing. We must point out the real culprits that today Catalonia is the region that houses the most illegal immigrants in all of Spain: Junts, ERC and the PSC are the ones that have led a real call effect. The Generalitat has even moved to Morocco to promote the Guaranteed Minimum Income, they have achieved that places like El Vendrell, Reus, Salou, or many others in Tarragona and other provinces of Catalonia, have a highly Islamized population. This must be addressed and it must be reported, it is a serious problem, not only for the identity of many neighborhoods but also for security.
In April, all parties except VOX voted in favor of an ILP to take into consideration the regularization of 500,000 illegal immigrants, including the PP. However, in the last week, Feijoo has called for a vote against illegal immigration. What does the change respond to?
It really is a real scam for voters. In the Parliament of Catalonia, every time we raised our voice in these terms from the PP they insulted us and joined the extreme left and separatism in denouncing our speech. Now they criticize him because they vote on Sunday and they try to deceive the voters by saying that they are worried when, as you have rightly said, they have supported this massive regularization of illegal immigrants. It is not enough to say some things and then vote for the opposite; It is the same thing they do in Europe, where they coincide in 90% of the votes with the PSOE. We have demonstrated from day one that we are consistent, that we have reported the problem and that we have offered solutions. I hope that voters know how to value that coherence in the message.
The PP argued at that time that they were voting in favor of this ILP out of solidarity. Is being in solidarity compatible with being against illegal immigration?
Evidently. There is no greater solidarity possible than allocating the few resources we have first of all to our neighbors, those whom we are called to govern, the Catalans, the Spanish. In Catalonia, 25% of the population is at risk of social exclusion and it makes no sense for us to dedicate the aid we have available, as a result of those taxes imposed on us, to people who have just arrived. That’s the most unsupportive thing there is. Obviously, if we had enough resources so that there was not a single Spaniard, not a single Catalan, who would lack bread on the table for their children or who would have guaranteed access to housing, it would be a duty to help those from outside. . But we can’t even help our compatriots. It is lying to those people who are going to leave their countries of origin aspiring to have a better future, who are going to fall into the hands of mafias who are going to treat them badly and, above all, it is a clear appeal effect. And we denounce that as serious irresponsibility.
In the last week you have spread some posters in Arabic that say You are in Spain. Here men and women have the same rights and you also defend that there must be higher penalties for sexual offenders. However, it seems that your party’s message is not reaching women.
We are making an effort to ensure that it arrives, but there are many media outlets, many political groups, that try to manipulate our message and say that we are going against women when we are the only political group that proposes the modification of the Penal Code so that those who Those who attack women have higher penalties, unlike those who fill their mouths saying they are defending them but then release rapists through the back door. We are making a special effort to denounce how their policies are condemning women today to be on the streets that are more unsafe than ten years ago. One in every three rapes committed in Spain is in Catalonia. Neither separatism nor feminists denounce that. We are going to continue demanding that there be legislative changes to guarantee the equality of men and women and the safety of women in a special way.
“I want Puigdemont to set foot on national territory, but to get into a police car and put himself at the disposal of Justice”
Those who led the separatist coup in Catalonia in 2017 are presented as candidates in this Sunday’s elections. How did we get to this point? Who is guilty?
The Socialist Party and the separatist formations that have now managed to blackmail the Government of the nation, which have allowed Pedro Sánchez to carry out the greatest act of corruption possible, which is to buy an investiture in exchange for seven votes. We are on the verge of approving an amnesty law that, I hope I’m wrong, will allow that criminal who left hidden in a trunk to return to national territory. I hope that the Supreme Court manages to overturn that law and that Puigdemont sets foot on national territory, but to get into a police car and put himself at the disposal of Justice and pay for these serious crimes.
After the amnesty and the agreements that the Government has reached with the separatists. What do you think the relationship with the Socialist Party should be?
Zero. There should be no relationship with the Socialist Party other than exercising the greatest possible opposition that the Spanish deserve, which is total and absolute. We do not understand how the Popular Party, in this context, remains willing to negotiate the General Council of the Judiciary or how it has not broken those more than nine pacts it has with the socialists in Catalonia. We have clearly said that we are going to lead that opposition in the streets, in the institutions and in the courts. And, if necessary and as we have demonstrated, filing complaints and presenting ourselves as a popular accusation, as in the case of Begoña Gómez.
Feijoo said a few days ago that the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, has “spirit.” He later added that “it’s not trustworthy.” Do you share this assessment? How would you describe Illa?
I would say that Salvador Illa is a person who does not have a word, that he is a political fraudster. On July 25 he came out very solemnly saying that there would be no amnesty, that there would be no pardons, and now he is the main supporter of the amnesty and pardons. Now he says that there will be no referendum, but I am convinced that he has already signed an agreement with Puigdemont, with Aragonés, with Sánchez, so that this referendum can be held. They forget that there are going to be a Spanish town and some courts that are going to prevent it. And I don’t understand this camaraderie of the PP with the PSOE, although it doesn’t surprise us either because we are used to the popular people saying one thing and then doing the opposite. We are going to continue being coherent and telling the Spaniards that we are going to lead this total opposition and that we are not going to be fooled by Salvador Illa no matter how much he says that it is an alternative to separatism because we know that it is not.
Regarding Junts, the president of the PP has said that he would speak with them “if they reconcile with the law.” Would VOX talk to Puigdemont’s people in those terms?
Never. We have nothing to talk to Junts, we have nothing to do with Junts other than the only conversation we had with them, which was before a judge, seating them on the bench so that they could be brought to justice and then go to jail. Then it was the socialists who released them through the back door with the pardons, with the amnesty law. Catalans must know that VOX is a coherent political formation that will defend the same thing it defended in 2014, which caused the coup plotters to be put in the dock in 2017. Catalans must rest assured that they will never see VOX speaking with coup plotters and separatists or with separatists camouflaged as socialists. We will never be at those tables.
The reality is that there are still many Catalans who support separatism. Can this situation be solved? As?
It can be solved and we are working to do so by conveying that message of hope to the Catalans that nowhere is it written that we have to live under the yoke of separatism and socialism. And education is something fundamental, it has been the main tool that separatism and socialism have used to indoctrinate our children. They have imposed Catalan with this so-called linguistic immersion, they have managed to fill schools with activists and empty them of content and, above all, they have used subjects such as History to manipulate it and tell a false story. And the results are what they are: that we are the region with the worst educational data, according to the latest PISA report, in all of Spain. Having instrumentalized the language has caused education, which was historically the social elevator of the popular classes, to be broken. We must imprint in the education of Catalonia values such as effort, sacrifice and, of course, guarantee that parents can freely educate their children in the language they want, which is something that does not exist in Catalonia due to the governments’ fault. nationals of PP and PSOE, and evidently by separatism. We have begun a beginning of change of course. We have shown it in Valencia, in the Balearic Islands and that is what I want to offer the Catalans.
In the economic sphere, VOX has proposed eliminating all of Catalonia’s own taxes. That sounds great but is it possible? how can it be done?
It sounds very good and it is possible, but it must be accompanied by a series of cutback measures, but not cuts in the well-being of Catalans but in the privileges of politicians. Catalonia is a region that has a political industry made up of more than 260 organizations, associations, foundations; It has the largest autonomous government of all the regions, with more than 15 councilors. It has a public television to which millions of euros are allocated from the public treasury. I propose reducing ministries, reducing subsidies to Catalan public television, which is a machinery of hate and pointing out dissidents, reducing subsidies in countless associations, unions, boards of trustees, reducing senior positions, and that would allow us to lower taxes. Just two and a half hours from Barcelona, our compatriots pay up to ten less taxes and have quality public services. Well, that’s what I want to tell the Catalans: that lowering taxes is not incompatible with maintaining quality public services. Here we have the worst healthcare, with the longest waiting lists. In education we have the worst data in all of Spain. Therefore, we should not believe that the more taxes, the better the services.
A few days ago at a rally you called on Catalans to lead the “rebellion of common sense.” What did you mean exactly?
Let us kick the board of those policies that we have suffered for so long, promoted by Esquerra, by Junts or by the Socialist Party. When I talk about leading this rebellion of common sense I mean that we come out once and for all in self-defense, as our electoral motto says. In defense of our neighborhoods, in defense of what we have known or, rather, what our parents and grandparents knew. Speaking of common sense is wanting to go to schools where we are taught things to grow humanly and professionally, to be able to go out freely on the streets without fear of being robbed or attacked, or if you have a second home you are not afraid of it being occupied, because this is the paradise of occupation. I want to encourage all Catalans to come out in self-defense on May 12 to lead this rebellion of common sense and begin to be closer to that post-separatism Catalonia.