"Equality today is a mere declaration of principle", proclaimed Javier Ortega Smith, Secretary General of VOX, at the First Observatory of Proa Comunicación's tenth anniversary year under the slogan 'Defending Spain in the Courts'.The meeting was held on Monday at the Club Financiero Génova. He made this forceful statement, referring both to the situation in Catalonia and to the law on gender violence, which his party believes violates the equality established in article 14 of the Magna Carta and the presumption of innocence.
He considered the situation in Catalonia to be even more serious, "a coup d'état, which continues today with the connivance of the national government". Because, he said, "States have the right to defend themselves" and, in order to do so, "they have the right to defend themselves", "separatist parties must be outlawed".He also said that the situation in Catalonia "is not a problem for Catalonia, but for the whole nation", and that a message of confidence and hope must be sent out that reaches every last Catalan. In this sense, he stressed that the situation in this autonomous community "is not Catalonia's problem, but that of the whole nation", and that a message of confidence and hope must be sent that reaches every last Catalan, especially those who are separatists "out of convenience or fear", and who, in his opinion, have not been sufficiently taken into account by recent governments.
In this sense, Javier Ortega Smith bet for "to recover national education and eliminate the educational competences of the autonomous regions, because schools are there to transmit knowledge".He also stressed the potential of civil society as an instrument of social change and the need to take away the "absolute monopoly" of power of social movements from political parties. He also stressed the potential of civil society as an instrument of social change and the need to take away the parties' "absolute monopoly" on the power of social movements.
He defined his party as a political party made up of the self-employed, entrepreneurs, students, "people who had a very comfortable life" and who, in his words, have had to take "a step forward to defend the basic principles of the Constitution, the rule of law and equality". How do they intend to do this? According to Ortega Smith, on four fundamental fronts: in the street, in the ideological battle "against the political and moral supremacy of some who believe that there is only one discourse", at the ballot box and in the courts. In reference to this last point, he recalled that it was the Jaén City Council, with the support of his party, which was the first to approve a motion calling for the application of article 155 of the Constitution in Catalonia.
Regional and municipal elections
Asked about the results expected in the closest elections, the regional and municipal elections on 26 May, he estimated that VOX's votes will be decisive in shaping and conditioning majorities, and that it could even be "the most voted party or the second most voted party in several town councils". Although more than the number, what the party considers more important is "that it is sufficiently decisive", that it conditions the "cowardly right-wing PP or the orange-coloured weathervane of Ciudadanos" and allows the policies "imposed by the left-wing ideology" to be changed. What he did commit himself to is that VOX will be a guarantee that "policies will be changed, not just armchairs". And they hope to surprise in the places where it seems most difficult, because "where firefighters are most needed is where there are the most fires".
Despite this willingness to negotiate, he pointed out that "the two red lines of the Spanish flag" will be the ones that will mark his limits when it comes to reaching an agreement with the PP and/or Ciudadanos: the defence of the unity of Spain and freedom. "We will try to implement as many of our policies as possible, but it will depend on the parliamentary or municipal strength we have".
A strength that he based on the diversity of both the geographical origin and the characteristics of its 28,000 members and voters. He reported that 30% of those who come to his polling stations are young people, first-time voters or people who have not voted for some time, "because they have no complexes from other eras". And he defined his party as that of the "Spain that gets up early", taking advantage of an anecdote that happened to him this very morning while he was having breakfast in a bar. "The more they insult us, the more members, the more votes and the more support we have", he concluded.
Javier Ortega Smith is a lawyer with a degree in Law from the University of Alcalá de Henares and studies at the ICADE School of Legal Practice. He has been the legal head of the Denaes Foundation for the Defence of the Spanish Nation and has been part of the Special Operations Corps of the Spanish Army (COES). Apart from being a mountaineer, he is a diver, swimmer and karateka. But, undoubtedly, the task that currently takes him most time is that of Secretary General of Vox, also heading the popular accusation against the coup plotters in Catalonia in the Supreme Court.
Proa Communication Observatories
The Proa Observatories are stable discussion forums with the participation of prominent executives, politicians and professionals. They are born with the vocation of being a laboratory of ideas where a genuine dialogue is fostered to debate current business issues, as well as corporate reputation, brand and public affairs as important elements for the improvement of companies.
Among the personalities who have participated in these meetings are the economist Manuel Conthe; the former Minister of Public Administrations Jordi Sevilla; the former Minister of Education, Culture and Sport José Ignacio Wert; the writer and priest Pablo D'Ors; the Director of External Communication of Deloitte, Antonio Belmonte; the Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of El Corte Inglés, José Luis González-Besada; the High Commissioner for Marca España Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros; the writer and journalist Pilar Urbano; the Director General of Información y Control de Publicaciones S.A. (OJD), Manuel Sala; the professor of Corporate Communication and Crisis Management at IESE Business School Yago de la Cierva; the director of Digital Innovation at Vocento, Borja Bergareche, and the president of Multinationals for Marca España, José María Palomares, among others.