There are 365 days left for Valencian citizens to decide the future of our land. Barely a year to open a new political era in the Valencian Community and the city of Valencia. A year to restore the dignity of Valencian institutions that have stopped looking at the people to look elsewhere. A year to put back at the center what truly matters: the daily lives of the social majority.

The next regional and municipal elections are about deciding whether we want a Generalitat concerned with protecting public healthcare or slowly degrading it into a business. They are about deciding whether housing is a right or a commodity reserved for those who can speculate with it. They are about deciding whether public education becomes a social elevator again or an increasingly unequal system. They are, in short, about choosing between those who understand institutions as a public service and those who use them as a tool for the benefit of a few.

Faced with noise, organized hatred, and politics of permanent confrontation, two women emerge who represent the exact opposite: Diana Morant and Pilar Bernabé. Two women who do not compete with each other, but complement each other. Two women who do not need to destroy anyone to build hope. Two women who understand that leading is not imposing, but listening, uniting, and moving forward together.

Just a few weeks ago, at the National Committee of the PSPV-PSOE, Diana Morant summarized the political moment with three verbs: open, unite, and lead. Three simple but profoundly transformative words. Open institutions so they resemble the society they serve once more. Unite against those who thrive on division. And lead with honesty, work, and closeness.

The Valencian Community needs to recover precisely that: political leadership with humanity. A Council that once again addresses the real problems of the citizens. That thinks about healthcare waiting lists before ideological battles. That defends public schools as a space of equal opportunities. That understands that access to decent housing cannot depend on your parents' salary or the speculative appetite of investment funds. That believes again in strong public services as a guarantee of social cohesion.

Furthermore, Valencians need to have someone at the head of the Generalitat again who does not abandon us when we need it most. The tragedy of the DANA left something deeper than pain and irreparable losses: it left the unbearable feeling of a lonely citizenry while its president was not up to the historical moment. And the most serious thing is that none of that has really changed. Because Carlos Mazón continues to be politically supported by those who have decided to prioritize party strategy over the dignity of the Valencian people. Juanfran Pérez Llorca represents precisely that continuity: more of the same, more dependence on the far-right, more concessions to VOX, and more attacks on social and civil rights that we thought were consolidated.

We also need to recover a livable city of Valencia. An open, plural, bright, and vibrant city. A city designed for those who live and work in it, not just for those who buy it as a financial product. Because more and more Valencians feel they are being slowly pushed out of their own neighborhoods. That impossible rents, uncontrolled tourism, and real estate speculation are turning the city into a showcase where the social majority can no longer afford to live.

The alternative to that model is not to close the city or reject progress. It is to understand that economic development only makes sense if it improves people's lives. That a modern city cannot be built on the silent expulsion of its residents. And here, Pilar Bernabé represents a different way of understanding Valencia: a friendly, inclusive, safe, culturally vibrant, and socially just city.

That is why the message from the mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero, is so important when he spoke of the historic opportunity that Diana Morant and Pilar Bernabé leading the two main Valencian institutions represents. Because he understood something fundamental: that there are political moments that transcend specific individuals and become symbols of a different way of governing.

And perhaps that is what most bothers those who constantly try to fuel confrontation: that both represent the politics of affection versus the politics of resentment. They are colleagues, but also friends. They respect each other, love each other, and work together. And in times when some try to convince us that permanent rivalry is inevitable, they demonstrate that another way of doing politics is indeed possible.

Because hatred needs division to grow. It needs to pit us against each other. It needs us to distrust our neighbor, the different, feminism, diversity, and the public sphere. Against this, we socialists continue to defend something profoundly revolutionary: the joy of collective construction. Love for our neighbor understood not as an empty slogan, but as a political commitment to the social majority.

And here too, there is an essential cultural battle. The defense of feminism against those who try to caricature it, attack it, or make it regress. Because when women advance, democracies also advance. And because even today, there are those who feel uncomfortable seeing women lead with autonomy, intelligence, and their own power.

That is why next year will also be an opportunity to advocate for sorority as a political tool. That alliance between women that has so often been essential to resist, sustain, and advance in spaces where deeply sexist inertia still persists.

There are 365 days left. Exactly one year to open windows again after breathing stale air for too long. To recover institutions that once again resemble the people. To remember that politics is, above all, about improving lives.