“I offered to agree with PSN, Geroa Bai, EH Bildu, Podemos and IE on key issues. This was not possible and we lost the overall perspective”

As if that weren’t enough, a pandemic and a reformulation of the space of the transforming left Contigo Navarra-Zurekin is around Nafarroa, which leaves him “concerned”. They have not been the easiest years. However, De Simón leaves “proud” and is convinced it’s his turn to let go.

It will not be repeated in May. Are you already feeling good?

-I admit that I was a little dizzy while the subject was being discussed in the hall the other day. But I come here every Monday and I don’t think I have three, two or five months left. This is something I don’t really pay attention to because I’m here to defend a political program against the citizens who voted for me.

Legislatures are four-year terms, not the time between elections, right?

–I said to those in government: Listen, there are a few months left, and if the legislature is not over for me, much less for you. I see too much selection and emotional messages and too little content. I come from a political culture where the main thing is debate and proposals, so these formats seem a little odd to me. It’s not the time to talk about elections yet, that’s what the campaign is for.

What personal political balance do you maintain shortly after finishing?

– I feel that I am very good in parliament and look, I am more and more glad that I did not enter the government. In taxation, public education, the rejection of TAV… this is what enables us to create an autonomous policy in everything that defines us.

And the government?

“Obviously I’m very disappointed. And powerless. Okay, I’m alone. But I take the right position to defend the living conditions of the citizen. This represents a right turn where too much demagoguery is done on very important issues like government, taxation or public education.

Did it surprise you?

We saw it coming. PSN, Geroa Bai and Podemos have decided to become Government and PSN always decides what is best for itself. I offered to accept 30 [PSN, Geroa Bai, EH Bildu, Podemos e I-E] basically. And that was not possible. They prefer to agree with you, now with the other, now I’m hesitant. We have lost the perspective of the whole and the left has lost weight and it shows.

Do you have the feeling that PSN’s glancing strategy might be bread for today and hunger for tomorrow?

-I do not know. But what I do know is that Navarra needs a strong non-nationalist alternative left that does not support PSN. I’ve thought about this my whole life. And right now I see it more necessary than ever. When that left cannot produce politics, it demands it. And in that sense, I am very proud.

Do you feel more helpless when alone?

– I am not alone because I have the support of many of my colleagues and I have the luxury of having the same resources as other groups, a sign of Parliament’s respect for pluralism. I talk to José Miguel Nuin every day. And yes, there is some personal wear and tear. But I am proud.

This is a very high rate.

“Those years my life was strange. I don’t know how many hours I slept, like six. More than 12 hours a day I dedicate myself to this and that alone. Being alone is always feeling like you’re running everywhere. But I think I have too much political capacity to be alone.

When you look back, what is left?

–For me, the most interesting of the three legislatures I’ve been in was from 2011 to 2015. And forming a government outside of PSN-UPN in 2015 was a huge success. The thing is, I prefer things that might not have made the headlines, but they’ve become very important to me. For example: In 2011, we divided the voting so that EH Bildu came to the table. We believed that the nationalist left put our grain of sand in its democratic practice. It’s a way of doing politics that I’m proud of.

Why are you leaving now?

–My idea was to leave at 60 and now I am 63 years old. I stayed because after the last legislature I believed it was my obligation. Of course, I also got the support of my institution.

Was 2019 one of the hardest moments when IE was about to be wiped from Parliament?

That day, this result seemed like a disaster to me. The change was out of the way and it was necessary to analyze why. But then, as time has seen, retaining that seat was a success. There were people with certainty and wisdom: this left is necessary. And now when I think about it, I say: What a success!

That seat was essential to IE’s survival and had to go all the way to the last table count.

I almost had a bad feeling that day. I felt a brutal dizziness. But I was very supported by both my colleagues and the Parliament. There is a pact, I won’t say implied, but I have great respect for pluralism in the Assembly. We were allowed to have the same political and economic rights, such as having a deputy deputy, which did not suit us.

The last legislature left Nuin; now you. Is a generation of the United Left ending in Navarra?

–I believe that political capacity is something else and has nothing to do with age or generation. At the age of 26, I had the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with Europe’s most important mathematics educators. They were fifteen or twenty years older than me. They talked to me about Koestler, about Kundera. I didn’t read them because I was young. And I went to read them. Now I get the feeling that young people think they know best and that we are tired. Seems like a mistake to me.

Does what you say fit with your criticism of emotional politics?

–We saw this with the yes is yes argument. What is it to take this personal attack to the extreme? You have to argue. What is needed to analyze this norm? In the meantime, don’t make decisions in bad weather. But wait, study the law and if it needs to be changed it will be changed. Now everything is taken to insults and sentimentality. Oh how excited I am, oh how excited I am! Look, I didn’t come here to get excited.

Do you see this behavior more in teenagers?

Everything is there, yes. Youth will come, I understood clearly. But young people are also what the rest of us build on.

If politics is more emotional, is it easier to polarize it?

–There is a risk of scaring the citizens. If this is happening, if it is impossible to understand each other, how will they participate in certain discussions? There are very interesting discussions going on here and a lot of work is being done in this Assembly, but some of the discussions are kept secret. There is one thing we don’t do well to focus discussions on what’s essential.

Besides being proud, do you feel comfortable with how IE’s political space remains?

–I’m not going to fool anyone: I’m leaving with some trepidation. Batzarre decided to enter the Government, we can do it too, at Izquierda Unida we said no, it looks like a success to me. And now I don’t know what will happen. I think the United Left should maintain its autonomy. But this is a decision that is out of my control because I am neither the coordinator nor a decision maker. But this worries me.

Izquierda Unida will go to a coalition, it will not have the autonomy you demand.

–I don’t care who goes with whom, because we have become three legislatures, for example, Batzarre and Izquierda-Ezkerra. The important thing is the project, the proposal and the commitment to that project. I am very worried that some political positions may be given up. I’m just saying it worries me, I won’t even consider these issues.

I suppose you want that area to be expanded too, right?

It’s my commitment to the people who voted for me, not to my organization. Therefore, my fundamental obligation, my only obligation, is to abide by the commitments I have made with the citizens.

Talk about consistency. More precisely, when they want to criticize, they say inconsistent. Chivite did this in plenary.

It was ridiculous, don’t you think?

For example, they blame him for being inconsistent with the deflation of the personal income tax he voted with Navarra Suma.

-I, if I disprove, I do with arguments. For me that vote is not an inconsistency. Rather: it is consistency. Which UPN benefits from this? I don’t know, of course, your deflation proposal is not IE’s. Politically, I understand that everyone is looking for their sources. But what is unacceptable is that the Secretary of the Treasury told me that the previous deflation with the CPI of 1.5% was the same as what is now suggested, an inflation of 8-9%. And while we’re having this discussion, without touching Corporate Tax.

Is this the policy you don’t like?

-Yes. Because later in the street they say to you: you are all the same. I’ve never been so stopped on the street. Many people congratulate me, but there are people who are rude. Although it’s true that I don’t usually get angry. I wasn’t even mad when they made me the crown on the single list.

Was it one of the most tense moments of the last legislature?

They insulted me because no one was insulted. It was very difficult. And now Basque candidates will find themselves with a song in their teeth. They should be satisfied! But it is unfair that some have two chances and some have one.

What are you going to do?

I will retire completely. I have a place at Sarriguren High, but I’m not going back.

Need to disconnect?

-I dare not. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to drop everything and go. I already have a routine and I don’t know how. I will try to ski as much as I can, I want to take a trip to Argentina… but I dare not say anything because I have no idea how to react. It was so stressful, so gripping… one thing is for sure, I will never leave politics completely.

What’s left?

With how much everyone has helped me. Of course partners. But also all kinds of people I’ve met through my parliamentary work.

Is there anything you regret?

–Sometimes I say to myself in tone, sometimes that I think I spent a lot of time with Marta Vera. [exconsejera de Salud con Yolanda Barcina]. I say it in tone of voice, not in substance, because I don’t take a comma out of my political criticism of him. He was like that, and all of us there had to put up with it. But sometimes I think I’ve raised my style too much and that’s helping me change. I had the opportunity to personally apologize to him.