lberto Tarradas is the youngest member of the Catalan parliament. This would be impressive enough, but he is also president of VOX in Gerona. We recently had the chance to talk with Tarradas about his campaign for re-election, Catalan identity, and some issues facing his constituents.
How is the campaign going leading up to the election on May 12?
Compared to the last elections—in which there was a lot of violence from the extreme Left—this campaign has been much calmer, and we have been able to visit all the towns in Gerona. What’s more, we can see that there is a lot of enthusiasm.
Catalonia is the only place where VOX grew in votes in the general elections. What makes VOX stronger in Catalonia?
Our message is always the same across Spain. What differentiates Catalonia is that here we are more advanced in terms of decadence than other places in Spain. This is because separatists have promoted, for the last ten years, policies of the ‘call effect’ and open borders. They have managed to change the social reality, and there has been an increase in crime levels—making them higher than in the rest of Spain—thanks to a massive influx of foreigners. This has been driven by everyone, from Junts, with the Nous Catalans (New Catalans), to the separatists of ERC and the socialists of PSC.
In order to understand Vox’s appeal here, it is important to recognize the fact that Islamism that is already a reality in many of our neighbourhoods. A few days ago, we denounced a Muslim-run bar in Figueras where women were forbidden to enter. It is a barbarity that no one had publicly criticized, but when we ask the other candidates who call themselves ‘feminists’ and claim to defend women to do so, they refuse to condemn this fact. It is a symptom of what is happening, especially considering that in Catalonia there are more than three hundred mosques, and in a third of them Salafism is being preached, that is, there are more than a hundred mosques that preach the most radical version of Islam. Nobody wants to talk about this; Islamism is being whitewashed.
It is curious that this has been promoted by those who claim to defend the essence of being Catalan.
Yes, but that is how it has been. In places where there is a growing Islamic population and where Islamism is advancing, our freedom is lost—especially that of women—our identity, and our Catalanness. However, the separatists who are so concerned about defending what is Catalan are not concerned that there are streets where there is not a single sign in Catalan, not a single Spanish shop, or where none of our languages are spoken.
Everything that is happening in Catalonia proves that VOX was right when we were the only ones to denounce that the policies that have had harmful consequences on our neighbourhoods. It is not only a question of insecurity; it is also a loss of identity. We were in Salt this week, and the community festivals are the Muslim ones—they are no longer ours. In Girona, almost half of the births are not Spanish; we are talking about demographic substitution and loss of identity. Separatism only defends its business, not Catalanness.
According to the polls, the Socialist Party of Catalonia will be the leading political force. Are there still people who believe that the PSC is a party that defends Spain despite its continuous pacts with the separatists?
Curiously, when the election campaign begins, the PSC gives its rallies in Spanish, says it will defend the freedom of parents to educate their children in Spanish, and denounces the advance of separatism. When it governs, the PSC votes 80% the same as the separatists and is against the sentence that obliges 25% of the subjects in schools to be in Spanish. They are not an alternative to anything and in these elections there will be a transfer of votes from ERC to PSC, that is to say, the separatist voters are comfortable voting for the socialists. However, where we are growing the most is in the places where people used to vote for the socialists, humble and working-class neighbourhoods that are suffering from squatting and crime, and which in some cases have a foreign population of more than 50%.
Squatting has reached unsustainable levels; how has this been allowed to happen?
Half of all squatting in Spain takes place in Catalonia. This is the consequence of a government that is more concerned with protecting the squatter than the poor families and is even considering expropriating houses to solve the housing problem. The police can do nothing, and the time to get your house back is on average four years. There are entire blocks of occupied buildings and even entire streets, as we have seen in Figueras. This does not only affect the person who has lost their house, it is a problem for all the neighbours who suffer the degradation of their neighbourhoods and drug trafficking. That’s why we propose a “kick in the ass,” which would force squatters out within 24 hours.
Can amnesty and the return of Carles Puigdemont revive the pro-independence process?
Certainly. The socialists said that amnesty was going to serve to pacify things and avoid greater evils, but the truth is that they are going to try again. The only way to pacify things was what we did, demonstrating all over Spain and putting those responsible in the dock. The amnesty makes them stronger because it validates their story and they are going to go back to their old ways, although they have not stopped encouraging separatism from the government. For example, 1.4 million have been approved for TV3, to continue making pro-independence propaganda, but there is no money for health care, and you have to wait more than four months to be treated by the public health system. Separatism is nothing more than a business.