Alexis Marí Malonda (Valencia, 1972) is a director of private security, an ex-member of the Civil Guard and a now-independent member of parliament in the autonomous region of the Comunitat Valenciana - the Valencian Community. A year ago he ceased to be a representative and, indeed, parliamentary spokesperson for the Ciudadanos (Cs) political party, abandoning the party together with three other MPs due to open discrepancies with leader Albert Rivera - a leader who, according to Alexis Marí, has surrounded himself with the worst of the extreme right and operates using Mafia-like practices which the Gestapo would be at home with. When he left Cs he described his former party colleagues as the "rubble of the PP". He is also married to Carolina Punset, MEP for Ciudadanos.
Do you have any friends left in Ciudadanos?
Yes. I have a thousand faults, but one virtue, and it is that I act with empathy. I try to earn everyone's friendship, even if they are very distant from my political ideology.
How did such a radical change take place in your ideological relationship with Cs in the period from 2015 to 2017?
I could give you a thousand examples at policy and identity level. I still have some emails from the current Ciudadanos leaders in which they said that, when we went to protests, it was necessary to go without any Spanish flags, or even regional ones. It was a party that wanted to show itself as being part of the citizenry. And that everyone could choose their own identity without imposing ideas, colours or flags.
What has Ciudadanos been converted into?
You can see. At the last meeting, blowing kisses to Marta Sánchez [who sang a new version of the Spanish national anthem]. They could not have found a bigger Spanish flag. Ciudadanos is practicing a rancid nationalism with a very dangerous discourse which is not open to debate. Let me explain: I stood for election for Cs with a programme that described the party as progressive, and now it is no longer that at all; it is not transversal either, it was liberal because it let individuals decide what they wanted to do... and, of all this, nothing remains either. They made a political shift and decided to go from calling themselves "social democrats" to "liberals", and now the most ultra-liberal and rancid part has triumphed.
And this also happened in the Valencian Community context?
Of course, when we committed ourselves to abolish the law on symbols of [cultural] identity there was already a divide in our vote. And also in positionings such as, for example, green issues, about closing nuclear power stations or not. From an initial doubt, they moved to a position of abstention and from there to a "no". A radical change; instead of the idea of "let's move away from...", what dominated was "this leaves us with...". And I do not like to waste energy sharing it with people with whom you clearly see you will not reach a goal together. I was invited to the wedding but I was the cousin who they did not want to invite. The definitive rupture occurred with the Spanish budget presented by Rajoy's PP government which was highly detrimental to the Valencian Community. We, all the parliamentary groups, signed a document rejecting the budget. It was at that moment when someone in the Cs leadership told me that this was a [pro-Valencian] "nationalist" act. And that's where the love affair ended.
For Ciudadanos, if you eat paella you are a good Valencian
They say that when you were a representative of Cs in the Valencian parliament, you flirted with the left-wing government.
That is the cheap discourse made by people who can't find an excuse. When Ciudadanos arrived in Valencia we said that it was necessary to change things. We did not want a PP that was corrupt to its very core, and so it did not matter if to get that we had to vote for initiatives with Podemos, the [left-wing] Compromís group, the Valencian Socialist Party (PSPV) or even with the PP. We voted for democratic regeneration with Podemos, for environmental questions with Compromís, and we stripped down a law on symbols of identity that seemed rancid, "if you ate paella, you were a good Valencian and if didn't, you weren't". Afterwards they forced us to change in such a way that we were more aligned with the right-wing parties than with those who wanted to change the ways of doing things.
The discourse of Arrimadas, Páramo or Villegas - they fill my belly with this stuff and I vomit
Is it pensé unique - ideological conformism?
I see speeches by Cs leaders Arrimadas, Páramo or Villegas and they sound the same. If you step half a millimetre out of line, they fumigate you. I ask myself out loud: do all the members of a party share the same ideology a hundred percent? Isn't it possible to say 'I don't like this', independently from the discipline of voting? The treatment of Catalonia, and its Mossos d'Esquadra police, or the great concern that they have discovered with Spanish security forces since 1st October, is paradigmatic. My background is in the security forces and, what a coincidence, after 1st October, the party became concerned with them. Beforehand, we weren't at all. That's it, they fill your belly with this stuff. And either I vomit, or I burst.
If an alien landed, it would become an independence supporter
However, this discourse is making Cs more popular.
That's how they're going. There are people who have bought this powerful discourse, of being against something and digging trenches with the intention of insisting that "you are either in this trench or in the other one". There is no intermediate zone, and you can't reach agreements or pacts. If an alien landed down in Plaza Colón in Madrid, it would automatically become an independence supporter, because of everything that is happening.
Is the independence movement in Catalonia favouring Ciudadanos?
There are facts that are irrefutable. Since Rajoy came to power, how many independence supporters and people uncomfortable with the evolution of the state have there been? There have to be bilateral relationships between an autonomous community and the central government. You don't have to be an expert to see that all that has gradually gone rotten. Catalan speaker Torrent was left waiting for Rajoy to receive him...
You have been active in Ciudadanos, so what's the party's proposal for Catalonia?
I don't know. What's happening, is everyone in Catalonia crazy? Guardiola, Eduard Punset, people with tremendous intellectual prestige... Criminalizing half of the population of Catalonia, whatever they think, is an error. There are many Cs leaders in Catalonia who have done nothing more than pour petrol on the situation by making jokes on Twitter - such as those aimed at former minister Mundó for example [when he was jailed]. I know what prisons are like and they are not Disneyland Paris. They are places where you suffer severely and there are people who only encourage a distancing, not the bringing closer together of positions. Both Carolina Punset and I, we feel terrible that someone like Oriol Junqueras is in prison. Imagine what they will say in Ciudadanos if they get to hear this...
The four of you form the No Adscrits - the "Non-assigned" parliamentary group, together with two former PP deputies. Does 2019 bring your parliamentary group closer to extinction or will you listen to offers?
(Laughs) This is not like a private company where if they fire you or you lose interest in the project you contact your friends elsewhere in the sector. Yes, there have been contacts with other groups where we might fit in, but you have to think what you want to do. I could go back to my professional activity; but we will see.
I will not be part of "Societat Civil Valenciana"
Are you behind the Societat Civil Valenciana platform that is being assembled to replicate the Catalan anti-independence civil group, the SCC?
No. Moreover, I have seen profiles that are at the polar opposite of my political ideology. I wish them luck, but I will not be there. I am more interested in think tanks on starting dialogue and generating ideas. I would sit down and talk with Elsa Artadi, for example.
I would pay half my salary to know what the Cs ideology is
Will Carolina Punset continue in Ciudadanos?
I think I know the answer but I can't say it. Many times I have asked her, 'what are you doing there?' I believe that Ciudadanos is not a party that represents her; she would be better off with the Greens, but you'll have to ask her.
Going back to Ciudadanos again, what is their ideology?
I would pay you half my salary if you could tell me. If today we vote for something in the parliament and four months later in a party discussion, the opposite is agreed, and this causes people to complain. When I get into taxis I am always asked: are you right-wing or left-wing? Ciudadanos is not transversal.
You always talk about being able to adopt the initiatives of other parties. But what are your own ones?
There are videos on the internet of Albert Rivera in which he says that the party's economic policy will be made by the affiliates, "but we have [economist] Garicano". They can't just go changing the policy in response to what the opinion pollsters tell them. If it is in their interests, they take on the role of being the "house brand" for the PP because the polls show it favours them.
If there is anything I like about the Compomís group, and about the Valencian minister Marzá for example, it is that they do not go outside the ideology that they want to put into practice and how they will do it. And if afterwards their percentage of votes goes up, all the better. But in Ciudadanos they don't care about anything. Let them count the amount of people who have left them for this reason: the spokespeople for the provincial administrations of Alacant and Valencia, the Spanish MP for Castelló, Carolina Punset, as you know she isn't completely happy with Ciudadanos... and many affiliates who have left because they lost their motivation. All because of the change of course that nobody explained.
The Mossos d'Esquadra have served Catalonia exceptionally well
What has been your most important parliamentary contribution?
My attitude, which has made Ciudadanos uncomfortable, has for example been in favour of the starting of the new Valencian regional public television, À Punt. But here, in Valencia, it is always the same, if you "catalanize" you create conflict: because people say that in [Catalan public television] TV3, it's all about mafia and indoctrination... We put four conditions on giving support to the creation of À Punt: spending limits, representation on the Board, that it helps to develop Valencia territorially and that it invigorates the audiovisual sector. If these four conditions have been met, why are we now going to say no?
And another commitment has been for a Valencian regional police force. I know the Mossos d'Esquadra and know that they have served Catalonia exceptionally well. But there is a lack of knowledge. I have Mossos friends who are brilliant at their jobs. Anyone who knows [former Mossos chief] Trapero cannot deny his professionalism. He has built that himself. He has taken apart organized gangs and won the respect of those who have worked with him. And now, they try to tell us that the Mossos are vandals. To raise doubts and suspicions about the Mossos is a very grave error.