These are the last days of a frantic campaign and Carlos Blázquez, “Charlie” to his team, compares the final stretch in Colmenar Viejo to a complicated and well-prepared round of golf. This lifelong neighbor -and current first deputy mayor- is the great bet of President Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the thriving town of more than 53,000 inhabitants. «I think she has seen in me a person who is open to dialogue, close, trained and experienced. The great challenge for her is not to fail her and, above all, my neighbors », he confesses.
Colmenar Viejo is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Madrid. The town has increased in population and seats (four since the last elections). Are there differences between the demands of lifelong apiaries and those of new neighbors?
Fundamentally, lifelong Colmenareños live in the surroundings of the historic center and in the end, those of us who have known Colmenar want that life to return to the center that it had many years ago. The paradigm has changed and many residents leave the municipality outside. The people in the new developments want to have more services: sports facilities, study areas for their children… However, in the end they all want Colmenar to be a better Colmenar.
As for the seats, will you have to find partners to legislate? Is it time for pacts or is that left for after 28-M?
First of all, we aspire to an absolute majority. We have surveys in which they give us a sufficient majority to govern without the need for pacts. And this is important because in order to govern – and in these years we have seen how the pacts with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with Bildu and with other political parties – go through a series of agreements that do not go through an idealistic image of negotiating to develop something better. On the contrary, many times what emerges are the selfishness of certain parties and certain territories. We also do not know very well what intentions they bring – about all the independent parties or the new parties or the new candidates that are presented. To this day, preparing a pact or thinking about a pact… no. We have to fight for a sufficient majority to carry out the program of the Popular Party. We are convinced that we are the best team of all those who are competing and the most studied, complete program and the one that Colmenar Viejo needs.
Speaking of the program, where would you like to position the municipality?
I always say that Colmenar Viejo has a great present, but it has a better future. It is a “pre-sierra” destination that is being used a lot for living, a family location, with many services, which in the end is 28 minutes by Cercanías from Puerta del Sol. It has many singularities that make it a very virtuous place to live. But we want to place it, in addition, as an area to work, which is located as the head of the region. A place with all the services where you can work and develop a family. The future of Colmenar Viejo goes through something complete, through a transversal vision in which we all have our needs covered.
Carlos Blazquez, PP candidate Colmenar Viejo © Alberto R. Roldán / La Razón newspaper Alberto R. Roldán PHOTOGRAPHERS
And what’s the first thing you’ll do on June 17 if you win the baton?
Get to work quickly, because there are things that need to be solved, such as the General Plan, which is what is necessary to develop that large industrial estate that we want to make, a green, technological, accessible industrial estate. And some other demands such as, for example, that of the elderly who have been demanding for a long time that there be a large center for the elderly. That by the way we are going to do it in the area of the historic center to provide or give more life to the downtown area, as they have been demanding. So, from the next day it’s work, work and work. Prepare the team, teach it, train it and that in September we will all be already, fighting to make a better Colmenar Viejo in the next four years.
Why do you think that Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who is also the president of the PP in Madrid, has opted for you as a candidate for mayor of Colmenar Viejo?
I have been working in Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s team for more than a year and we have been, hand in hand, preparing many municipalities. I think he has seen in me a person who is open to dialogue, close, trained and experienced. I am very grateful for the trust that Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the PP have placed in me. The great challenge is not to fail her and, above all, my neighbors.
Ernest Hemingway wrote in “Death in the Afternoon” that “the best fighting bulls come from Andalusia, Salamanca and Colmenar.” Will you do anything to continue this important legacy?
The cattle and fighting bull tradition in Colmenar is evident. We want to promote that cultural, bullfighting vision, rooted in Colmenar and in Spain. Thus, we want to equip and prepare the bullring that will be for the next 100 years. That events can be held not only at the Colmenar festivities but throughout the year.
Carlos Blazquez, PP candidate Colmenar Viejo © Alberto R. Roldán / La Razón newspaper Alberto R. Roldán PHOTOGRAPHERS
The socialist candidate for the presidency, Juan Lobato, was scheduled to go to the demonstration for Health in Colmenar Viejo on Sunday. Does the PSOE have any chance here?
The left is using health (and when it is not health it is culture or education) to make a demagogy of unspeakable size. They are aware that the ER in Colmenar Viejo is a problem of lack of doctors. It is a problem that goes beyond the region and affects all communities. The president has put on the table all the money that is necessary to hire the doctors to complete all the emergencies and different positions: what is missing are the professionals. The PSOE has no other way of reaching the people if it is not through war, demonstrations, the “revolutions” that they call. They don’t know how to do politics or excite voters with their project and their candidates.
In his program it is stated that he will request the presence of an emergency doctor at the South Health center. You’ll make it?
We are going to fight permanently so that the point of continuous care, wrongly called emergencies, is open with a doctor and fight so that the medicine in Colmenar is better. But we have to be aware that there is a systemic problem and it does not belong to the competition at the regional level.
What would you say to undecided voters?
That they analyze the team of all the matches, in detail, each of the people who attend: what is their training, their preparation and experience. And that they analyze the programs, the realistic ones, that can be achieved in four years and those that cannot. Do not believe the story of the “Pied Piper of Hamelin.” We are the best team: with the best program and the most experience. We know what Colmenar needs and, of course, we are going to get it.
