Reyes Maroto, the supporter of tourism slapped by Alberto Garzón

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When Pedro Sánchez called her the first time to offer her the Industry, Commerce and Tourism portfolio, Reyes Maroto (46) did not hesitate. The first thing he did was call his parents, Julio and Pilar, to tell him about it . They both knew that the girl was going to go far, but that she was going to be a minister ... they couldn't even imagine in dreams. They cried with emotion, like many of the residents of Ataquines , a small town in Valladolid of just 500 inhabitants where the minister grew up and where she continues to come every summer to spend the San Juan festivities with her husband and two children.

"Ahhh, but she is not the only minister of the town, " the mayor, Héctor Arroyo , proudly points out to LOC . The young mayor (he is 30 years old) reminds us of another of the illustrious daughters of the town: Isabel García Tejerina, Minister of Agriculture with Mariano Rajoy. "He was around here at the 2015 parties. He came to give the opening speech, but he has not returned," says Arroyo, who has his own platform, Todos por Ataquines, and does not commune with either the PP or the PSOE. "Nothing to do with Reyes, she does come a lot," he adds.

Julio Maroto, a retired farmer, and his wife, continue to live in the same house next to the church where they raised their three children. Reyes is the median and since she was little she pointed ways. She was a girl of ten , very smart and extremely studious. At the town school and at the Olmedo institute, she stood out for her marks, full of enrollments. She was especially good at Mathematics , they remember in town, where she used to give private lessons to the children and to the classmates who searched and left them for September. She was hard-working, constant and humble, stand out from her those who knew her at that time.

"For us it is a pride that he has become a minister and that he continues to boast of the people," says the mayor. Maroto was frequently dropped by Ataquines, but he has not been seen there for a long time. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, the boss , as her team calls her, practically has not left the Ministry's office on Paseo de la Castellana. Maroto manages one of the most complex portfolios, the one most affected by the pandemic , responsible for more than 40% of GDP (Industry 16%, Commerce 13% and Tourism 14%, according to 2019 data). The crisis has taken all the figures ahead, while she tries to alleviate a devastating collapse and works to save the summer. "It is overturned. It takes three months without stopping, practically without seeing his family, with constant meetings", sums up a person from his environment, who emphasizes that Maroto is highly valued among the affected sectors , "especially in tourism" .

Within the Government, however, it does not appear to enjoy the same consideration. Despite the importance of the areas it manages (tourism was already the first engine of the economy in 2018, generating 12% of employment) Maroto has been left out of the Reconstruction Commission of Congress, something that the same sources denote. of "incomprehensible". Nor is Alberto Garzón, the Minister of Consumer Affairs, who has classified tourism as a "low added value, precarious and unstable" sector.

"He did not enter the rag because he is a very educated person and he responded with elegance, but Garzón's was a slap in the face," adds the same person consulted. As was also the disavowal that he suffered from the Minister of Health on account of the reductions in trade.

This Thursday the Executive again made the minister ugly by rectifying her announcement that Spain was going to bring forward the opening of its borders with France and Portugal on June 22. The Executive clarified that what is being negotiated is the elimination of controls, but that land borders will not be opened until July 1.

Played by Sánchez

Economist and university professor, Maroto's brilliant curriculum caught the attention of Pedro Sánchez, who signed her in the summer of 2018 for his first Cabinet, advised by Ángel Gabilondo. Before making the leap to national politics, she was a deputy in the Madrid Assembly for the Socialist Parliamentary Group , where she acted as spokesperson for the Committee on Budgets, Economy, Finance and Employment. During her first term, she had to deal with the bankruptcy of the British tour operator Thomas Cook, which she managed with solvency. She enjoys the full confidence of Pedro Sánchez, who recalled her after the November elections.

Maroto has lived for several years in the Madrid town of Alcorcón with her husband, the Valladolid engineer Manuel Pisonero, and their two children, ages 8 and 12. There he continues making a discreet and very normal life. "You keep finding her in the Lidl next to her house, shopping with the cart and she keeps sending the kids to the urban camps organized by the City Council," says a neighbor.

Nor has it ceased to participate in the activities of the Socialist Association, of which it is a part. "Whenever we ask him, he comes to help us out," says Natalia de Andrés , mayor of the town. "In Alcorcón we are very proud of her, she is the prime minister of the red belt ," he adds. Maroto has always been very involved with the socialist formation of the town. "At the parties in Alcorcón it was the first one that rolled up its sleeves in the party booth to fry squid or whatever was necessary," recalls De Andrés.

This year the PSOE booth will have to wait, as will the communion of her young son and the Sanjuanes de Ataquines, where they await her with open arms.

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