For the first time in the long history of the PSOE, a woman can be the candidate for the Mayoralty of Arrecife. It is not a trivial anecdote, it is one of many symptoms of the change that our party is experiencing, in line with the demands of society.
To get here I had to get the support of colleagues and colleagues who will support my candidacy and I must publicly express my enormous gratitude for their support.
A gratitude that becomes immense when I think of the enormous difficulties that some people have experienced in exercising their right to decide in freedom. Although it hurts me, and it hurts me a lot because it is about my party, I must recognize that bad things still remain entrenched habits, vices and deficits of democratic culture in some sectors of the PSOE.
I am not satisfied with having obtained the endorsements. It is not enough for me. I want to win these primaries. I want to win them by convincing the membership and not intimidating them, I hope that bad practices are not repeated and that the process is limited to the contrast between profiles, ideas and projects between party colleagues.
If it were not like that, nothing and nobody is going to stop me, and much less the four hierarchs who act in the shadows. Intimidation, perverse rumors, have no place in a process in which citizens are going to judge us by our degree of transparency and fair play.
I am convinced that the opportunity we have to regain the trust of citizens is extraordinary. The democratic exercise we are carrying out out through the primary process focuses the attention of our supporters, we cannot break that hope.
Arrecife needs a boost. It needs to recover the illusion. It needs a PSOE different: excited and with the capacity to lead the change that the city demands.
A PSOE capable of going beyond mere day-to-day management. Capable of propose hopeful goals while realistic. That is only within reach 2 of a party that begins by being excited about itself, with the internal changes that stars.
That is the offer I make to my colleagues to ask for their trust and your vote: recover the PSOE for all its members, recover the certainty that we are capable of undertaking together the changes that the citizens of Arrecife demand of us to once again grant us their trust in a majority way.
Cristina Duque Ramírez, candidate for the PSOE primaries for the Mayoralty of Arrecife.
