This successful lawyer, international law advisor and specialist in European Union law distributes her time between Madrid and London: Miriam Gonzalez (Valladolid, 1968) advises companies, institutions and governments on issues related to international trade, “from the most glamorous, such as the major negotiations in the WTO,” to very concrete actions “such as sanctions legislation or respect for customs or antidumping duties on a specific product.”

The professional work of this Stanford professor is now focused on her consulting firm Altius with projects that weave relations between Europe and Africa, while she continues with her project Inspiring Girls International that fights for female leadership from childhood in 32 countries.

It has also just been proposed for a new Council.

Is it living in different countries that has led you to create this project?

That has helped me, but you can get to the same place by different paths. I have tried to make the best of the life circumstances I have had. If I had stayed working in my town, I might have arrived by a different route. It is true that there is a very pronounced political drift on both extremes, it is very noticeable in the US, focusing on the narrative of what things are called. For those of us who have worked in multilingual environments, like me, who started working at the European Commission and was always a maremagnum… We must not be prisoners of narratives, we must give solutions to people.

Do you think that the cases will be different between generations?

We think not. This same project also seeks to analyze whether it is true that in Spain there is a generation gap, this narrative that is so used now, that we have conflicting interests by age group, or there are common interests and break stereotypes and create spaces to push policies.

Do they seek de-ideologization, so to speak, through professionalization and investigative expertise?

Deep down, if you take any social group from a rational point of view, we really are not that far from each other. The enormous polarization that exists in Spain, which is the second most polarized of European countries after Sweden, is really not natural to Spanish society. Spanish society is polarized. It’s not that we are polarized. Here the proposal is to leave the ideological difference. There are laws that can be pushed from ideology, perhaps later, but there is something prior, something else, that is the solution.

What do you mean, for example?

What is needed, for example, so that young people can have more experience when they leave their studies? Whether at the university or vocational training level. There you have a series of solutions: there are three or four things, which are simple. We’re not really focusing on solutions, there are a lot of things that we know are problems and yet we skip past the solutions. The problems must be resolved, it cannot be that temporary problems become endemic. Look at the unemployment figures, how is it possible that we do not have political commitments on youth unemployment?

Not only are they just professionals then…

There is a first stage of listening. That part of listening to those who know and those affected by policies… Solutions can be shared: all young people need solutions. Why can’t we implement some of these initiatives?

new patriotism

In your vision you speak of a ‘Modern Patriotism’, what do you mean?

We have to go to a more modern notion of patriotism, which is the value of my commitment to my country, which has nothing to do with history or things that others have done before. It’s ‘what do I do with my country, how do I commit to it? Are we a generation that contributes to our country?’ Then there is a populist patriotism that must be turned around.

It seems that it is a tool to eliminate narratives rather than to build them…

Perhaps, by focusing on solutions…removing verbiage. Does this work or not? That is the question. And how is it paid for? I believe a lot in the simplification of policies, we are not a think tank, we start from an analytical, rational, data-based methodology. Once you arrive at an analysis, it is not about taking it there in detailed reports, but rather simplifying it so that it can really be understood by everyone, by people who are not dedicated to the field of public policies. And then push it. I think the key is to simplify the narratives, not to complicate them and leave everything in the language.

What if I have an idea for improvement for Spain?

Then you have to go to the website and register. In two possible ways. You present your idea or you are interested in what we do, you participate to the extent you want. We are creating working groups and working with a start-up mentality: where is there more information, will we do a comparative analysis? And then on those proposals we are going to do the work of giving them the social volume. It is a simple methodology.

Female leadership is not specific to Spain Better…
It is fundamental in everything. I see conciliation policies as a social issue. It bothers me a lot when in narrative matters we create differences when we really know the underlying problem. And when what is necessary today is more women in high positions in all sectors and call it whatever we want.

The technological vector

Why do you think this platform is needed?

Because I do not agree that it is difficult to communicate in Spanish society. It is difficult in the Spanish political sphere, which is stretching… But that does not reflect where society is. Spain is not going backwards, but it is stagnant because of all that noise, which is a distraction.

Spain is more open, tolerant and willing to compromise than we are told. It is difficult to present right now because we come from one election and go to another, and perspective is lost… The debate is much more extreme in parliament than on the street. Let’s put solutions on the table. We do not compete with anyone, I hope they copy our ideas, that they take the credit. In this country there is plenty of talent.

Aren’t there a lack of resources?

In Spain there are many resources, but they are used poorly. One of the things that is true that if you have lived abroad is surprising and you cannot believe it, is that proposals are made without analysis of cost and opportunity or impact. And we need systems of controls and guarantees. Especially when the money is not even public but comes from a transfer of European funds.

Is technology key to this change?

The thing is that we are not a leading country in technology, nor is the European Union. Everything is at stake between the United States and China with an enormous change that has occurred in the last twelve months. Now what we are talking about is that the United States prevails and where China is going to be with this enormous blow that they have given to artificial intelligence in one year.

If those who have a pessimistic view of technology focus on regulating it and not being interested in its use, things will not go well. Any new development needs regulation, like cars at the beginning, with seat belts or driving licenses! But there are a series of things that will have to be done, such as trying to ensure that all the local talent does not leave to make technological developments. , and that they be done here too, not as a base, but as a next phase and we have to think about how to make things easier and give those opportunities.

Are they going to use AI?

We have to wait a little to see how things move, but there is a part of artificial intelligence that interests us: how to finalize the technology to improve public policies. The part of listening and opening public consultations, measuring things. Governments have a lot of our data, but why can’t we make policy results measurable? Results policies, real-time measurements… that will be logical very soon, in the coming years.

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