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SPANISH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2023 | Introducing Podem Xábia's Juan Lopez
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Oct 29, 2024
🗳️ Podem Xàbia is running in the municipal elections on the 28th of May with Juan Antonio López at the head. Juan was born in Valencia and has lived in Xàbia since 2018. A lover of sports and outdoor activities, Podem's mayoral candidate is also a mathematician and computer scientist and was a professor at the UPV and secondary education. In addition, he has managed projects of the Generalitat Valenciana for more than 30 years, many of them with European funding of tens of millions of euros per year. Podem's candidate for mayor of Xàbia was an external consultant to the World Bank for the government of Gabon and has extensive experience in public administration, public procurement and public budgets.
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this is Bay radio where we're leading up
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to the local elections across Spain on
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May the 28th and talking to some of the
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local parties involved and this time we
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are back in Javier or shabia with um
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upon him this is um we're talking to
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Juan Juan Lopez who is the candidate in
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the upcoming elections you're the first
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on the list I believe but going to
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translate some of it is Bernhardt who's
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also involved with the party so this is
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um podemos basically the local branch
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yeah but in valenciano
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okay so relatively new party as far as
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the whole political landscape goes but
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it did pretty well against some ground
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currently in Coalition of course with
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the national government and we'll talk
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about it at a local level as far as
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happy it goes well I've had a look over
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your CV impressive uh the sort of things
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you've done I mean a degree in
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mathematics and Computing you worked as
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a university teacher now as well and
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more than 30 years of experiencing
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Contracting for regional authorities so
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really have been involved in this but
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also an external advisor for the world
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bank now I know a little about the World
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Bank but just tell us how you got
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involved with that and what it involves
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yes
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the World Bank is an institution that
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finances development projects in
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developing countries in Juan's case the
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Republic of Gabon a french-speaking
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country on Central Africa's West Coast
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it was going to computerize its health
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system so first the technicians and I.T
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companies of Gabon Drew up a project and
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the World Bank in order to guarantee
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that contracts are drawn up correctly
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called into external Consultants to
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cooperate with the regional authorities
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and supervise the project
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um as as you said Juan is mathematician
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and I.T technician and was also
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responsible for the IIT system of the
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valencian health authorities for five
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years so he applied for the job and got
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it so impressive records as far as that
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but it's not all Academia people are
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always interested voters are always
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interested in your personality as well
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and maybe the personal side of things
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and I know I can tell by looking at you
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assassin you're a keen Sports person
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what do you get involved with
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[Music]
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yes I've always loved Sports I started
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off as a child with swimming handball
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basketball later on marathons and now
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what I like most is Triathlon an uncle
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of mine used to say that Triathlon is
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the ideal sport for ducks
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um I have to explain here that in
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Spanish
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means being clumsy because ducks swim
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run and they fly and they do each of
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these these things not very well
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compared to other animals but they do
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all three of them
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so doing sport relaxes me but it's also
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a kind of Life philosophy because sport
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apart from the health benefits always
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puts you in your place
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you never the number one there's always
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somebody who is better than you but
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nevertheless you have to be constant and
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try to surpass yourself and that is what
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sport teaches me every day now I'm
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always impressed by uh triathletes
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particularly because that's a tough old
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game and uh that bit there reminds me of
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the um joke about
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um seals I think seals are faster on
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land and in water so if you take one on
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in the triathlon you really have to make
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up time in the cycling part of it but
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um really interesting healthy body
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healthy minds and all that so it goes
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hand in hand let's bring it back to the
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political side then and projects for
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Javier with him
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yes
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and Javier works these are our main
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objectives having a breath is refers to
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the protection of the environment we
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just can't go on on building ever more
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tourist Flats to have an Ever more
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crowded town in High season at the same
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time important infrastructures are being
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neglected like the construction of a
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storm water tank or a biomass plant now
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this is a thing it's always a thing in
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Javier particularly but a lot of the the
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coastal areas when it does rain heavily
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it doesn't drain away very quickly so
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this is maybe something touching on here
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so can you explain what is the storm
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water tank uh why would you build a
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biomass plant in Javier um
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each time it rains a lot and here it
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doesn't rain properly very often but
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when it does the rain water goes down
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the same drains as the sewage water and
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the pumps transporting the water to the
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sewage plant just can't cope with the
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huge quantity of water and the rain
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water is Spilled Out together with the
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sewage water into the river or the sea
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you can see the massive over spill tube
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under the bridge of the Augusta next to
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the secondary school
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and that's when you get all the wet
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wipes through over the Montana Beach and
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the arena and the tissues problem is the
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tissues are only the visible part of the
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sewage Waters that are spill out without
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treatment
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so what we have to do is first separate
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the rain water from the sewage water to
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have less quantity of water for the
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treatment pumps and second if these
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treatment pumps can't deal with the
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quantity let the sewage water overflow
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not into the river or the sea but into
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huge tanks from where when the sun is
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out which in Javier isn't after too long
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it will be pumped into the sewage
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treatment plant and clean
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another project we will put into
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practice is the tertiary treatment of
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the Wastewater it cannot be that a
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leaking pipe that releases treated
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Wastewater into the sea poses a health
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threat to people who swim in the arena
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as was the case Last Summer the waters
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which are released into the sea have to
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be clean enough not to threaten People's
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Health especially the one of children
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and the elderly also when the pipe is
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not broken I think it's horrible to
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think that all the excrements are going
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into the Mediterranean a tertiary
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treatment would also make sewage water
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fit for irrigation which in my opinion
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with increasingly frequent drought we
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have is a must
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we can't go on training the groundwater
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through private Wells for irrigation
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while we send millions of gallons into
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the sea just doesn't make sense
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saw this eight years ago when in the
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election Manifesto they promised this
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tertiary treatment of waste Waters and
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also a biomass plant the problem is in
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eight years of governing on their own in
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majority they haven't even started these
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projects
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all right so why a biomass plant then
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a biomass plant uses Garden refuse
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another organic waste material to
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produce electricity and heat which can
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be supplied to homes public buildings or
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the public swimming pools which
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hopefully will be finished soon but a
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biomass plant also precedes this organic
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material here in Javier at the moment
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every day dozens of lorries ship our
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garden ways to a processing plant
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somewhere down south which is the acts
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opposite of sustainable and the fire
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hazard remains none of us wants to
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suffer any more fires like the ones when
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Ramblers was burning for months
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now with a couple of those issues that
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we've touched on already I think are
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going to be quite big in the election
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campaigning coming up which is underway
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already but as far as Podium shabia then
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another important strand of your program
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is mobility
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um what are you referring to what's the
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mobility problems are there and what do
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you intend to do to resolve them
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municipality is very extensive and
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people live in all its extensions we
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have Urban centers like the old town the
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port El Arena and the urbanizations to
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move between them we depend on some
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transport in times of high tourism the
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streets become impassable increasing the
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pollution the time used in the
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displacement and the problems of parking
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not forgetting the night transport
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especially for the young very necessary
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at weekends and on holidays as well as
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the connections between neighboring
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towns or the access to the train station
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of Gata recently put into operation
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again we propose to provide buses with
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shorter routes to complement the current
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ones electric vehicles the
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re-municipalization of the transport
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service night buses to and from
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nightlife venues making the service
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reliable with wasting time indicators
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regularity discount vouchers
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establishing a network of electric
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bicycles reform and connect existing
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bike lanes and even Interurban bike
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Lanes of course all this is very
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difficult to implement in a single
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legislation term but the idea is to
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decongest the streets and achieve a
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friendly municipality in which to live
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without exclusively depending on your
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car now many of the parties will be
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making similar promises to these that
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we've we've touched on already and you
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know her people can be very skeptical at
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times so what makes you think that
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you'll be able to deliver on these
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[Music]
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for several reasons first my team is
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highly qualified about half of the
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people in my list have a University's
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degree second we are all professionals
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or financially independent none of us
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depends economically on a seat in the
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town hall so we have been working for
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the past six years with the sole
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motivation of improving the living
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conditions of the people of we have no
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second intentions and finally I
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personally vouch with my professional
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experience of three decades implementing
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improvements in public administer
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registrations for the success of our
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electoral pledges always provided we get
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a say in the future local government and
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that's what we need fields for okay so
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along with some of the issues we've
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touched on already just the the generic
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question why should people vote for you
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and not for any of the other parties
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have proved themselves as completely
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inefficient take their election
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Manifesto from 80 years ago and put the
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tick on every fulfilled promise you
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won't be able to count to three and it's
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not only big projects like the ones we
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mentioned before the kiddies playground
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renovation in DBS was tended in 2020 and
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is still unfinished the children have
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not been able to use it for about eight
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months
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it's very sad really and the renovation
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of a children's playground doesn't sound
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too complicated to me
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about other parties Vox is as is an
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extreme right-wing xenophobic party any
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Foreigner voting for walks is shooting
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themselves in the foot and they have not
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made a single proposal for improvements
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for Javier in the last four years they
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only appear now to scratch some votes
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from discontent voters
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and the same goes
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gone missing for four years and
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reappearing now Google
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which is the same in valenciano and see
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how many activities suggestions and
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proposals we have made in comparison
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another party is a valencian nationalist
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party if you want everything in
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valenciano and AUST Castellano built for
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them and finally there is the partido
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popular Rosa is a very nice and capable
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person but here we have to look at the
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national level as well as the local ones
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on a national level stands for
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corruption in the last decade dozens of
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corruption scandals involved
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popular have been discovered and there
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has never been a serious intent to get
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rid of the people involved
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on a national level
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public housing to vulture funds leaving
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Spain without a real stock of public
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housing
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many people have forgotten that the
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massive construction of tourist flats
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and the sellout of land for development
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started with a former PP mayor also in
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the last elections I heard the Rosa used
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the term investors where I would have
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said speculate
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so in an actual we respect all the
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people who are running but we've seen
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inefficiency in pesoi not fulfilling
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their electoral promises and the partido
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popular causing the problem of
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overcrowding and constructive
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speculation destroying our precious
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natural environment and on the other
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hand we see electoral opportunism in
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other parties that during the last years
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have not exercised a constructive
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position proposing their Solutions with
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loyalty we have and we will put into
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practice our proposals well thank you
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very much for your time Juan Lopez as we
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heard an external advisor of the World
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Bank and candidate for podium
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in the upcoming Municipal elections on
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May the 28th presumably there are social
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media Pages people can follow for more
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information yes for example there is uh
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the podem shavier website where our
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election Manifesto is on and and also
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our telegram group
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and others okay
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gracias thank you for having us
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