ReportingThe regional election in Castilla-Leon, Sunday February 13, constitutes a test for the new Spain emptied party, in fight against the effects of desertification.
In the square of the village of Olvega, a municipality of 3,600 inhabitants in the province of Soria, a few curious people are gathered on Saturday, February 5, around a small caravan marked with the logo of the Soria ¡ YA! platform. (“Soria now!”). As every day, since the campaign for the early regional elections in Castile-Leon on February 13 began, the candidates on this citizens’ list have been criss-crossing the roads, bordered by fields of cereals and hills planted with wind turbines, to meet inhabitants of this region deserted. Their electoral program has only one objective: to reverse the rural exodus, which began in the 1950s and has since emptied the province of nearly half of its inhabitants.
“We don’t have a pediatrician and for four years we have only had one doctor left,” explains to the candidates a resident, Lorena Popa, employee of a transport company. Her husband, Fernando Fernandez, a municipal employee, is determined to give his vote to Soria ¡ YA! : “They are the only ones campaigning so that Soria has good infrastructure and that our villages do not die”, he assures.
Long black hair and a soft voice, Vanesa Garcia, number two on the citizen list, listens to the grievances of each other. “In general, people tell us about the lack of doctors, public housing and transport,” sums up this 44-year-old lawyer, who is committed to ensuring that the Sorianos “don’t have to leave anymore” to seek a better future. After her studies in Valladolid and Madrid, she herself put “twenty years to come back”.
If Soria¡YA! is standing for election for the first time, the platform is well known to locals. It was born twenty-one years ago, to demand the construction of a motorway, the A11, between Soria and Valladolid, the capital of the region, 200 kilometers away. Two observations led her to make the leap into politics. “After twenty years of mobilisations, progress has been almost non-existent”, summarizes Angel Ceña, head of the list. Almost 60% of the route of the A11 is still missing.
“The pandemic, above all, has been decisive, he continues. We have become aware of the dramatic shortcomings of our healthcare system. The mortality rate was much higher than that of other provinces. Our only hospital, which dates from the 1980s, is insufficient. Rural medical offices are closed, telephone reception almost non-existent, and we only have one medical ambulance in the whole territory…”, adds this 54-year-old civil servant, on the sidelines of a meeting in the Palace of the Hearing, in the city center of Soria.
You have 66.8% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.