The day the electoral campaign began, a close associate of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, told La Vanguardia that “security is not an electoral issue today.” “Proof of this is that it is not even going to be discussed in the debate between Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo. If there is any allusion, it will be tangential ”, he predicted. So it was. During the face-to-face between the socialist leader and the popular leader, the only allusion to a security problem in the country was made by Feijóo to ensure that since Sánchez became president “the squatting of homes has increased.” A decontextualized data since the Statistical System of Crime collects that the occupations of houses began to increase in 2016, when Rajoy was president.
During the last legislature, the opposition and the majority police unions – which feel very supported by the right and the extreme right – have tried to place in the political debate the alleged problem of insecurity that plagues the country due to the rise in crime. However, the figures refute these claims.
The total number of criminal offenses registered in 2002 adds up to a total of 2,325,254 offences. Of these, 83.9% corresponded to the category of conventional crime, which represents a reduction of 1.6% compared to 2019, the statistical reference year used as it was not affected by restrictions due to the pandemic.
More data. Last year Spain placed its crime rate at 48.8 known criminal acts per thousand inhabitants. In the United Kingdom this rate rises to 79.5. In Germany up to 60.7. And in Denmark or Belgium at 53.9 and 74.8, respectively.
And the figure that really has all the alarms going off in the Ministry of the Interior, despite the fact that it does not sneak into political rallies –and in a very superficial way into electoral programs–: cybercrime has increased by 72% compared to 2019.
The Popular Party includes in its electoral roadmap the promise to implement a security plan against cybercrime “with personal means, legislative reforms, investment in technology, specialization, training and awareness campaigns. The truth is that there is already a strategic plan to strengthen the fight against cybercrime, approved by the Interior a couple of years ago due to the rise of this phenomenon.
The Socialists are committed to developing the plan through more specialized agents in the face of crimes that are very difficult to prosecute – computer scams, attacks on databases, theft of intimate information or business fraud – and have a very low clarification rate. In the Sumar and Vox programs, this problem is not alluded to.
What there are mentions of – in each and every one of the Vox rallies – is the phenomenon of illegal occupation. It was also, for his part, the candidate of the Popular Party who brought up this issue in the debate. The extreme right promises “zero tolerance” with the illegal occupation through a reform of the Penal Code and the laws of Criminal and Civil Procedure. The scope of this reform is not detailed in its program.
The popular ones do make more concrete proposals that are reflected in their electoral document. On the one hand, they propose to approve a package of “anti-squatting” measures to allow evictions to take place within a maximum period of 24 hours, that illegally occupied homes are not subject to tax burden, or to prevent squatters from registering. In addition, from the PP they assure that new units will be created in the State Security Forces and Bodies specialized in the fight against the illegal occupation, as well as “immediate action units” with “clear and effective protocols” that they do not develop.
To try “not to give more ground to the right in this matter in which they have taken the flag”, according to socialist sources, the PSOE is also involved in this problem. In their program they admit that the illegal occupation of homes “is a serious fact and must be fought, especially the action of the mafias.” The Socialists promise to promote a legislative reform to guarantee the eviction of the illegal squatters within a maximum period of 48 hours. 24 hours more than the popular proposal. “For the Government of Spain it has been a priority”, reads in the PSOE document.
The Crime Statistical System shows that the number of criminal offenses related to the occupation of real estate in the first quarter of 2023 was 3,898. In the same period of 2021 this figure stood at 4,634. And in 2022 at 4,385. That is, at the start of this year they have been reduced by 11%
