María José García has been working for years Compromís, where he has reached internal positions of great responsibility. However, it has not been until this election that he has taken a step forward to present himself in a starting position on the training list for the City Council. He has not only managed to enter, but is part of the Dénia government in a vital council for the city, Economic Promotion, being in charge of everything related to employment, commerce, the Municipal Market and CREAMA.
The mayor meets us at the relatively new offices of the council, located in Pintor Llorens, where she gives us a tour of the facilities and attends us with our homework done, a stack of documentation on the table and the usual nerves of the first interviews.
ASK. First time you enter the town hall and you do it directly in the government. I guess that was the idea too. What attracted you to politics?
ANSWER. I already had the bug for a long time. I have entered the government now at the beginning, but it does not mean that I have not been within the collective for some time, in this case. I have worked a lot more in organic politics, I am currently a regional secretary, I am a member of the national executive, of the national council. I have been on this issue for a few years, but in municipalism it is true that it is the first time that I am inside.
Q. As you say, you were already in Compromís but it was now when you decided to put yourself in the front line, as number two specifically. For what is this?
R. By the local executive. We have been working these four years and in the end you start to create a list, they encourage you, you also want to take a step forward and in the end you decide. To the adventure, right? With enthusiasm too, and desire to work.
Q. You get the Department of Economic Promotion, without a doubt an area of great relevance. Was it the one you wanted?
R. Yes, it was one of the ones I wanted. He had also talked about Social Welfare, but I think that all the councils are important. There is no one better than another or easier to carry. Each one has its circumstances, and one of the main attractions of taking this one in particular is that I am very fond of talking to people. I like being on the street and Promoció Econòmica is one of the councils that contributes this.
Q. Regarding the first days since you took office, how have they been?
R. Right now I am in a moment in which the information comes suddenly and needs to be rearranged. It remains to sit down, order all the ideas, order the information that they have given you and start working.
Q. You hardly had time to settle in because the first big action was a few days after the inauguration, with the Shopping Party.
R. It was already planned. I simply finished carrying out the process, because it came from Sandra [Gertrudix].
Q. This edition involved changes with respect to the original project from which it derives, the Nit Oberta. How do you rate the new version?
R. It's as you say, it comes from the Nit Oberta, the only thing that the merchants asked for was the time change. They asked for something like Nit de la Llum but not at such a late hour.
Q. Some stalls in the Municipal Market told us that they expected more, that there were not many people inside the market. And that they closed at 23:30. How can it be solved for future editions?
R. They had one hour more than the downtown shops because they requested it. It's not that there weren't people, what happens is that it was very hot and at first people find it more difficult to leave the house in summer, or they are at the beach, and they go out more towards night. There were people, but a little later. At first there was a technical problem with the air conditioning, that affected a bit because whoever entered immediately wanted to leave. But it was fixed and people then responded.
Q. Economic Promotion encompasses Trade, Employment, Market, CREAMA... What do you think of the work that has been done this time?
R. That seems fine to me. We are going to do a sequel. We have the route plan that is the Dénia Strategic Trade Plan, which was created by an external company. Some objectives have been created and the idea is to continue with these objectives and implement others.
Q. What are those main objectives for these four years? Will there be new projects?
R. New projects? Yes, work is being done to create new campaigns and new projects. Right now the Global Trade brand is on the table, a marketing and communication strategy that will be on the streets in the short term. And we will also convene the Trade Council to promote it and work on public-private collaboration. That way we can work with more citizen participation.
Q. We were talking about the Municipal Market before. It is a very important enclave in Dénia, but the workers who have their jobs there have been feeling threatened for years, either by private initiatives (such as supermarkets or similar private markets), by people's routines or even by the transformation of the city (which makes access to the market difficult by car). Does the Market have a future?
R. I think so. I think we have to make a renovation, an aesthetic adaptation and also promote a digital transformation. You have to make an improvement. It's not that easy, there are many things to work on. And one of the proposals to work on and improve is accessibility. Smart signage needs to be implemented to facilitate parking. We have to weigh all the information, we have to regroup it and we have to work with it.
Q. It seems that it is not possible to make a generational change in the clientele of the Market. How can young people who have grown up with a large supply of supermarket chains be convinced to make use of what the Market has to offer?
R. It's complicated. But I'm telling you, we have to give it a new impetus. Thinking of young people, perhaps we have to reorganize the stalls inside the market, give it another life to make it more attractive to young people, so that they come.
Q. Regarding Commerce, we have seen that there are more and more campaigns in Dénia. The Shopping Party, the Consumption Bonuses, the Nit de la Llum, the Christmas market last year... Will we see more changes like the one suffered by the Nit Oberta?
R. My idea is that yes, but as we have mentioned, we have just arrived, collected all the information, and now is the time to start ordering and start working. But my idea is to do new projects. If they allow us from the Ministry and continue to give subsidies. We'll see what happens.
Q. Every time these actions are announced there is usually criticism from the neighborhood shops, because they focus on encouraging purchases in the center of Dénia. Has trade outside the center been abandoned?
R. No, is not that. As I told you, an external company carried out a diagnosis of the situation of Dénia's commerce and created a strategic plan with different objectives. One of its objectives is to position the center of Dénia as a reference commercial destination and thus increase the tourist-commercial link between local commerce. That is a point that is worked on with the Nit de la Llum and the Shopping Party. But the rest of the campaigns are not only in the urban center, but all of Dénia can participate, such as the Stock Fair, such as the Stock Market. Christmas. Maybe it is less attractive, but it is not reality.
I do want to work more neighborhood by neighborhood, making a diagnosis more of the neighborhood, of each zone, and to be able to create other little things for everyone.
Q. In the case of employment, what do you think is the main problem facing Dénia?
R. None problem. Yes, an employment table was created two legislatures ago, which perhaps needs to be given a new impetus. My idea, which I had in the campaign, is to promote that table to see where the problems are and to be able to provide solutions. Training is very important, we want to promote schools for young entrepreneurs, which is already being done, and give it more power.
Q. Does the temporary nature of the jobs, those that are created only in summer, benefit or harm the market for job offers?
R. I believe that each job has its particularities. There are jobs that need that seasonality now in summer. We know that in Dénia the hotel industry triples, people triples, and needs that temporary reinforcement. Yes, you should work in the underground economy, which is what affects businesses. We have to see how we can denounce and work together with the collectives of workers, hoteliers or the entire trade association, in order to counteract this submerged economy.
Q. Finally, something that you have repeated a lot and that you seem to give a lot of importance to is training. What ideas do you have for the CREAMA course offer?
R. Right now we are going to continue with the three formations that exist. But we are doing a project to be able to accredit more facilities. For example, in the matter of lifeguard training there is a lot of demand and in no center in the region of the Marina Alta have that accreditation. Therefore, it could be a novelty. It is something we are already working on. Also the issue of fish, which is difficult to find the agreement, but yes, we are working to bring fish and delicatessen, which is also in demand but not training.
It would be interesting to know the 8-hour working day, in which it is used; apart from going to take a lot of photos.
I didn't understand anything either!! What are you going to do? Oh!! That they paint and decorate the Market again. Señor@s Speak for the people please
I see it clearly, Councilor for Economic Promotion, already in the first plenary session salaries were promoted, in the second plenary session approval of a credit, in the next one………. Well we'll go scratching our pockets.
Clearly another Department that is left over in Dénia
1 Lower your salary. 2what is needed Work.
Typical Commitment
Nothing concrete and no feasible ideas.
More blah blah blah
It scares me that people like that are in power.
They only care about filling their pockets, and saying they didn't say anything in the interview and I've read it 3 times.