Since she has had political awareness, "since the party was called Popular Alliance," Ástrid Pérez recalls, she has been with the PP. As a child, she missed the concert of one of her favorite groups because they were playing at an event for the PSOE and she decided she didn't want to go there. An anecdote she tells amidst laughter that punctuates the conversation. A fondness for the ideas of the PP that later, while studying law in Granada, materialized as a member of New Generations and culminated with her affiliation to the party in Lanzarote in 1999, at 27 years old, more focused on her newly established profession than on public affairs.
But that same year, her party included her on the electoral list for the Arrecife City Council, and the following year she would be an alternate for the Senate. Her first position was obtained in 2003 as number two in the Cabildo, where she came to occupy the Ministry of Economy and Finance during the short period of Francisco Cabrera as president. Now she is willing to stop being a councilor in the opposition - "the accumulation of public positions means that you don't do one job or the other well" - to represent Lanzarote in the Senate, a position she plans to fight for "with great enthusiasm."
She is preparing for the tough campaign that is presented as tense throughout Spain because Zapatero "has been interested in tension and drama for a long time," she believes. At the other extreme from the one governing the country, Ástrid Pérez places Rodrígo Rato, José María Aznar, and Mariano Rajoy as her role models in politics and wants to make it clear that the bishops are not the PP, although she recognizes that in her party they would prefer that "all of us who make up the Church were from the PP."
Passionate about her work, which she loves the most, Ástrid Pérez was born in Gran Canaria 38 years ago but soon came to Lanzarote to stay, where she has her office, her house, and her family with two smiling children who successively appear on the screen of her work computer and who occupy the little free time that politics, law, and her teaching activity at the UNED leave her.
Facets that, a little defensively to the question, because of being a woman, she is clear that she will know how to combine if she reaches the Senate "just like Jesús Machín and Marcos Hernández who have children even younger than mine." She confesses that she has not given a rally in her life, but what worries her most is offering the dedication that going to the Senate deserves because she is clear that the position in Madrid has nothing to do with "winning and then having a great life for four years."
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Favorite holiday: I'm not much for parties, but I like San Juan in Haría
Corner to get lost in Lanzarote: Arrieta, Playa Blanca, Haría, Famara...each moment and each mood has its place
Best political moment of her life: the economic recovery plan of the Cabildo
Worst political moment of her life: when we went to the opposition and how we went
Cinema or theater?: theater, but in Lanzarote cinema
Spanish or American cinema?: Spanish, but I don't remember when was the last time I saw a movie
A book and an author: I'm reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" and I really like Antonio Tabucchi
A dish: Canarian sancocho
Football or Canarian wrestling?: neither one nor the other
The Lanzarote politician you like the most who is not from your party: ufff, (laughs), I'll leave Dimas Martín to Suso. Without a doubt, Nicolás de Páez
Why do you want to be a senator?
Because my party told me "you, here" and I was delighted. (Laughs). I don't think local politics has anything to do with the politics that are done in the Senate. For us lawyers it is very interesting because it implies the capacity or not to veto a law, we who handle the laws every day. And also defend the interests of Lanzarote, work for a certain thing and achieve it, I think it is a personal satisfaction.
Are you ready for the string of rallies and handshakes these days?
Well, I'm working on it...I don't really know if I'm ready (laughs). I've never done a rally, I think that's what I don't handle well but well, I'll get used to it.
With what weapons are you going to defend your candidacy?
Well, with the proposals and initiatives of the PP that we are going to break down the days of the campaign. It fundamentally has to do with health, immigration, ports, airports, infrastructure, all those matters that are the responsibility of the State Government. We understand that in these four years they have only remembered Lanzarote to impose things on us. We are going to unblock the financing fund for health that Zapatero has frozen since 2004 and also an additional fund to cover those autonomous communities or municipalities that suffer the phenomenon of immigration that Zapatero has denied us.
What would you argue against those who believe that a nationalist party will better defend the interests of Lanzarote in Madrid than a state party?
We are all Canarian, my land hurts me as much as a nationalist and I am going to fight for the interests of Lanzarote as much or more than a nationalist, I honestly think it's nonsense.
Do you think you will win the senator's seat?
It will depend on what the people of Lanzarote want, if they want to, I will win. I hope that the PP wins the general elections because we have the best project and we have proven it in the last 12 years. How did we find Spain in '96? What did we do until 2004? And how are we going to find Spain in 2008?
How would you evaluate the work of Marcos Hernández these four years in the Senate?
Mr. Marcos Hernández has asked a lot about the previous legislature and very little about his legislature. He has not worried about the Foreigners Internment Center even knowing that the City Council of San Bartolomé and the Cabildo have said no, nor about the maritime-terrestrial demarcation that is going to destroy a lot of homes, he has not worried about the cruise ship dock, he has not worried about our elders traveling in equal conditions as those of the larger islands, he has not worried about the point-to-point rate. Do you want to tell me what Marcos Hernández has worried about in these four years? about nothing. Well, he has asked things like how many working women in the province of Las Palmas have received one hundred euros, how many civil guards have come but not how many have left and what Aznar did. That's what he has done.
What do you bring that Jesús Machín and Marcos Hernández don't bring?
Many better proposals and initiatives, much more time and much more work capacity.
Are you afraid of your adversaries?
Of none. I respect both of them. I adore Suso, he is a personal friend of mine. Marcos is not a friend of mine but I get along well with him. But fear as a Senate opponent, not at all. Marcos started moving 8 or 9 months before so that his party would put him back and Suso doesn't have time, also I think he is a good mayor but I don't think he would be a good senator.