Ana Quinto i Salort She is a candidate for the Jovent Republicà del País Valencià in Ara Repúbliques, the coalition formed by Esquerra Republicana, EH Bildu, BNG and Ara Més, for the 2024 European elections. She is from Pego, where she studied at the Carolina Sala public school, then in the IES Enric Valor and began to love music a little more at the Josep Climent Professional Conservatory in Oliva. Now, at 22 years old, she is in the fourth year of her Law Degree at the University of Valencia and she combines the busy exam season with the intensity of the electoral campaign.
Between events and university tests, the young Pegolina dedicates a few minutes to tell us more about her experience as a militant in the youth of Esquerra Republicana and how she made the leap to candidacy. Her roots have led her to feel a strong connection with the defense of the territory, the countryside and its people and we take the opportunity to bring distant European politics a little closer to its home, the Marina Alta.
ASK. What's your story? How do you enter the world of politics?
ANSWER. Since I was a teenager, I have been very interested in how to change our world and how these changes affect us. In the second year of my degree, I joined the Bloc de l' Estudiantentat Agermanat (BEA), which is a Valencian and democratic student union. I have been active in it for three years and I have been the Secretary of External Relations for a year.
In addition to starting to join the military in this union, in my third year of college I did an international study stay in Córdoba, Argentina. There he was active in a Peronist union. In my fourth year of college, upon returning to Valencia, with all this euphoria, I became interested in the politics I could do here, in my homeland. Seeing all the political options there were I took the step of joining the one that was most in line with my ideology, the Jovent Republicà of the Valencian Country. I have been active there for about seven months.
Q. And how do you think all that experience could influence the European Parliament?
R. I am one of those who think that on an individual level people can do small actions and achieve great things, but also that organization is key and very important to achieve them. If we go alone, we will probably get there faster, but if we go with a team behind us, we will go further.
My political career has given me experience of organization, of being in a space where we have to reach consensus, create debates. It has helped me a lot to know how an association like Esquerra Republicana works more or less. I think that this experience would help me, if I reached the European Parliament, to being able to reach consensus and listen to the agent who has trusted me so that it is in that place.
Q. From being a member of a political party to saying yes to an electoral list, there is one step. What are the main reasons that led you to make this decision? As was?
R. Within the Jovent organization I do not have any organic position, I am a grassroots activist. But the spokesperson for my party and the secretary of organizations made a national permanent and my colleagues included my name. On the list we are three Jovent candidates, one person for each territory, from the Balearic Islands, the Principality and the Valencian Country.
Within a week I received a call from the spokesperson for the Jovent dels Paíss Catalans and he proposed that I be a candidate. When the nation knocks on the door, you have two options and both are legitimate: say yes or say no. I am one of those who thinks that It is very difficult to say no to the nation..
Q. How do you see the role of Ara Republiques in the current European context? What common values or goals unite the entire coalition?
R. We are the coalition of stateless nations and that is why our campaign motto is "We choose the Europe of the people." We are parties that are nationalists and sovereignists of our lands. It is a way to create synergies, to create strength. We are the people of Europe who want to have our own voice without having to go through, for example, Madrid. We want to go to the European Parliament directly. We do not want to go through games that care more about Madrid, with all my respect, than about Gandia or Dénia. It is our way of saying: "Here we are nationalists who want our land first and then create other relationships."
Q. How do you value the participation of young people and not so young people in the European elections?
R. I think that in general in society we have a very distant vision of the European Parliament, of the European Union, that no one knows very well how they work and how it affects us in daily life. But really More than 60% of the laws passed by Congress are adapted by regulations of European Union directives. In terms of participation, we would have to improve a lot as a society, because in the end these elections do affect us a lot in our daily lives, even if it seems not.
Among young people, it is a more particular thing because, today, we are required to go 200 per hour. Having 4 degrees, 4 master's degrees, 23 languages, having traveled to 20 countries, and we have a very fast pace of life, also influenced by technology. This greatly affects our political disengagement.
These elections are really very important and we are trying to increase participation. I think it is a somewhat difficult task, because between the frenetic pace that is imposed on us and all the occupations that we all have, it is a bit difficult to be 100% informed about everything.
Q. Do you think that Europe listens enough to younger voices?
R. The European Union is trying, but it is not enough, it should not stop at a few words at a meeting. I I want the European Parliament to make policies so that we all have the same opportunities, the same conditions. I think he has to improve a lot in this aspect, not only listening to us, but paying attention to us, going further.
Q. The Marina Alta has very specific needs. From Ara Repúbliques, how do you bring this European policy closer to a more local or regional level?
R. Here, in the Marina Alta, for example, we have terrible tourism. In the Valencian Country, according to 2021 personal income tax data, our neighbors have the lowest incomes in the entire territory. From Esquerra Republicana, We do not want our economic model to be destined for tourism, but rather for agriculture.. We have to protect the Valencian countryside, but, above all, In our region, we have to create an economic model that defends this sector and is not all absorbed by a tourism model.
I think that the people of the Navy have a lot to say this Sunday, because we are a region that works the land, forever. For example, the abandonment of the mountains, speaking with the people of Les Valls, is an issue of great concern.
We are a region with so many mountains and so much coastline that it is very important to protect it. And this, with all my respect, from Madrid they are not going to protect it. For example, the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union (CAP) is very generic. It arrives in Madrid and from there, when they think about how the CAP can affect farmers, they think about a model of land, mountains, livestock, for example, destined for Andalusia, not destined for the regions here. And we do not have the same problems, because an olive tree in Marina Alta is not the same as one in Seville or Huelva. They are all olive trees, yes, but we have to adapt our conditions to our lands.
Here we have a lot at stake in these elections regarding the countryside and regarding tourism. I think that They want to sell us as the bar of Europe, especially on the Mediterranean coast.
Q. And in addition to the economic model, the protection of the countryside and the coast, what do you think may be other priorities for the region or the Valencian territory to defend in Europe?
R. We are together with the working class and I believe that as such we have to unite and confront big capital. I also consider it crucial reindustrialize our regions, but in a social key. The distribution of the wealth that can be generated is important. Because the distribution of benefits either goes outside or remains in few hands.
The working class of the Marina Alta also has a lot to say with its vote on June 9, because if we do not work together, as Fuster said, "any policy that we do not do will be done against us." It is a cry not to abstain. If working people or people who want to protect the coasts and the Navy's fields are not going to vote, we can end up absorbed by the right and the extreme right, to whom the polls in these European elections give a very good result, because they are on the rise. .
We were born here, we are going to die here, in our house and no one better than us to be able to defend what is ours.
Q. What are Ara Republiques' forecasts for Sunday, June 9?
R. The polls give us three MEPs, but there are some that give us four. I would like the entire list, but we are between three and four.
Q. Finally, what message would you like to convey to citizens ahead of the next European elections?
R. On June 9, go to vote thinking about your land, your home. And if you are leftist and sovereignist, do not hesitate to vote for Ara Repúbliques because we are the option that has a Valencian voice capable of making real policies for our people.
