Ana Pontón, the positive spirit that resurrected nationalism

Natalia Puga Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Updated Sunday, February 18, 2024-22:53

• 18-F Results of the Galicia elections 2024

• Politics The PP sweeps Galicia and Sánchez leads the PSOE to disaster

She was born in the small village of

Airexe

, in the parish of

Chorente

, in the municipality of

Sarria

, in the province of

Lugo

, in 1977. Many data that may seem superfluous, but that are essential to understand the figure of Ana Pontón Mondelo. In this campaign she herself remembered them and valued them. She began the race towards 18-F in the kitchen of her family home, accompanied by her parents,

Áurea

and

Luis

, before a table of pancakes, almonds and homemade chestnut cake, and she bragged about her origins, ensuring that the person and the policy she Today we only understand each other by returning home. She also presented the project she presented to reach the

Xunta

, which left her far from her achievement, but above her electoral ceiling.

"Here I learned the value of women," she said that day. She completes it on her campaign website. "My political awareness comes from these values ​​that were instilled in me at home and from a very young age I also had an awareness of identity and a feeling of certain rebellion against inequality and discrimination." She is the village girl, the third of four siblings with a mother who is a farmer and a father who works in a cement factory, whose dream is to "make history" as she is the first woman and the first nationalist to govern

Galicia

. At the moment, she has already confirmed herself as the head of the opposition.

The first political achievement that can be attributed to him is having resurrected Galician nationalism. She cut her teeth in the youth of

Galiza Nova

since high school in Sarria, in the CAF at the University of Santiago, in demonstrations against the LOU, the Iraq war or the

Prestige

and then in the BNG as a deputy since 2004. In 2012, she joined He became its national spokesperson and, in 2016, its leader.

He wants "a new nation status for Galicia in the State"

They were the first two glass ceilings that he broke, being spokesperson and leader of the BNG, but not exactly a candy, but almost a poisoned dart, since in 2012 the party had fragmented in the

Amio Assembly

, historical figures like

Xosé Manuel Beiras

left and they founded

Anova

and

Alternativa Galega de Esquerdas

(AGE), the precursor of the

tides

and Podemos. The fracture took its toll on them, they lost representation in Congress and, when she took the reins at the beginning of 2016, the polls predicted that they could also become an extra-parliamentary force in the Galician Parliament.

But no one counted on the

Pontoon effect

. Half a year later, in the 2016 regional elections, she managed to save the ships and began a takeoff that in 2020 led her to be

defeated

by a weakened PSOE and made her head of the opposition. Your recipe for it? Moderation, confidence, positive spirit and kind manners. In her training, they highlight that she generates "good vibrations" and praise that she manages to do so without diminishing the firmness of her convictions.

The approach to youth and women managed to launch their project

The BNG that he leads is friendly and open to dialogue, but without giving up his principles of struggle for self-government, the Galician language and the identity of Galicia as a nation. "A new nation status for Galicia in the State" is one of the demands that he revealed in the campaign and his program hides others such as sovereignty to decide, a model of linguistic immersion or its own judicial power.

Pontón belongs to the

UPG

, the hardest wing of the BNG, but has known how to read the current political moment and, within the process of refounding the formation, reach a larger population. He even reached out to those who left 12 years ago and managed to seal the reconciliation of the entire political spectrum with a symbolic hug with Beiras; But what he managed to launch his political project was an approach to sectors of society such as youth or women. To achieve this, his friendly image, his negotiating skills, surrounding himself with a young team and launching a campaign in which he has opened up his personal life to feed voter confidence have been key. She is the youngest candidate of all those who attended, but also the most seasoned in parliamentary life, the only one who repeated - the rest of the parties changed their headline - and the best-known face among voters.