Do you breathe easier since you decided to make your resignation public on Friday?
It can be understood that way. Any position of responsibility has a burden, but whenever I have had it, I have freely assumed it and enjoyed it and faced it with satisfaction. I have never understood the typical person in charge of something who talks about sacrifice. If you are there it is because you want to, you enjoy it, and you do what you have to do. And that is a wonderful feeling.
What led you to resign and why did you wait until Friday to make this decision public?
Since the result of the local elections, the first temptation I had at that moment was, as I did, to assume the results as my own, even though they were results that had occurred throughout Spain and also in the Canary Islands. Sometimes resignation, while it may seem like a heroic and noble act, is the opposite, it is fleeing from responsibilities. I understood that it was necessary to respond to general elections that were immediate.
After the general elections, much of the same. Despite the fact that in Lanzarote it obtained results that were a defeat, the PSOE achieved 30 percent support. At that moment, I thought about resigning but I believed that it was necessary to continue with the organization of the Congress and from there a new leadership would emerge.
What seemed intolerable to me is when some colleagues, who I totally respect their opinion that I should not continue in office, launch themselves into the media and begin to question decisions that are internal to the party. That is my limit. I understand that I cannot respond in the same way out of respect for my colleagues. That's when I decided to resign.
So, when internal divisions become external, is that when you decide to leave office?
Yes, indeed. It is the moment that marks the turning point. So far we have come.
Will you stop being a member of the PSOE or could you run again?
I'm not going to leave everything. I am a member of this party. I have a passion for the public and my socialist ideology in my very core. But you will excuse me if I reserve the right to answer, but for a very simple reason: All the decisions I have made have never been alone, but with colleagues.
In fact, at the press conference I apologized to the Executive colleagues because it is the first time that I have made a decision alone without consulting the colleagues. It always seemed fundamental to me that decisions were the result of consensus, of the corresponding body. Regarding my role before Congress, what I want most is not to repeat. But in no case is it just my decision, because it would clash head-on with what I have defended about the militancy of a party, which is the full willingness for colleagues for better and for worse.
The PIL has been the enemy of the PSOE and you have always refused to agree with this party. From now on, is there a possibility of this type of agreement?
That is a question that in no case is it up to me to answer, but to the people who at that time have the party's commission. As a member I know what I will think if that moment comes and what I will defend where I have to defend. The party must not transcend certain political and moral limits, but I am not going to be the one to say it, nor do I consider that the reason is only on my side.
However, can the managers make political decisions?
They are very limited, because they do not receive their legitimacy from a Congress. Any decision of that caliber would have to have the approval of the regional Executive. At this moment, the situation of the manager is very peculiar and that is why I have not understood the rush of some colleagues for me to stop being secretary general, because now the party depends on the decision of the manager. The party loses autonomy. The capacity to make decisions is limited and subject to the regional Executive.
Given what has been seen, would you bring to the attention of the Justice system, as you did, the alleged illegalities that were being committed and that gave rise to the "Unión" case and the "Reyes" case?
It's a dangerous question. One runs the risk of answering yes, of course, I would do it again and give a certain image of being unconscious or thrown forward. But that's really how it is. The complaint of Operation "Unión" is evident. If someone appears in my office and insults me by offering to buy me, the logical thing is to go to justice. If someone enters my office as a public official offering to buy me or buy that little piece of popular will that I have to exercise, it is so insulting and outrageous that it only has one answer, to go to the courts.
I think I would do the same again. Obviously, with the knowledge I have beforehand, the decision-making process would be more difficult. But they are inevitable issues, because the most sacred thing we have are the decisions we make together. And when someone plays with an advantage, with cheating and corrupting the political power, it seems simply despicable to me.
Do you think this is a price that you have had to pay personally and also the party itself?
Indeed, there has been constant harassment since 2006, when I filed the complaint in the Investigating Court Number 2. And what I feel is that on many occasions it has not only come to me, but to the party. And about colleagues who at some point may have had a bad time. But I have the feeling that they are inevitable issues, they have to be done, there is no other way to act.
Will the change of secretariat mean a change in the PSOE's thesis in Lanzarote in reference to the defense of the territory?
I am convinced that it will not. If it were so, I would experience it as a collective failure, it would seem dramatic for the PSOE and for Lanzarote. Each one with their style, with their level of knowledge and daring with the subject, the defense of the territory is shared by all socialists. In no case would I commit the absurdity of thinking that it is a defense associated with my person.
What will your future be from a political point of view?
To be from the base of the PSOE, which is sufficiently important and honorable. To be a socialist, which I feel more and more proud of every day and now more. I will be involved in another way, but I intend to remain involved as a grassroots member. You have to respect people's times and rhythms. Now it will be my turn to continue being very available to the party and I plan to continue doing so.
During the press conference, it slipped out that in 2012 there could be some interesting judicial issue...
That answer must be understood in the question that was asked to me at the press conference, which was whether some businessmen had gotten away with it because of my resignation and whether investigations were now going to stop. I said that they would continue and that in January we will continue to move forward. Which does not mean that in the case of Court Number 2, we will continue to have a very active attitude proposing evidence and accusations. Although some breathed a sigh of relief on Friday thinking that the hotel had shrunk, it is still the same size.
What do you think of the decision of your former Secretary of Organization, Joaquín Caraballo, to go out and speak in the media?
I will only make one clarification and from there a silence. It is that precisely in the press conference I said that this type of behavior seems intolerable and deceitful to me and therefore I am not going to enter into any discussion in the media.
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