Carles Puigdemont has made his party’s position clear regarding issues such as multiple recidivism, after there was controversy with some mayors of Maresme and this issue a few months ago. The former Catalan president has separated this phenomenon from immigration and has indicated that it is a more judicial than police problem that he already had to face when he was mayor of Girona, before becoming president of the Generalitat.
The Junts candidate spoke in this regard in a press conference about the “demographic challenge” posed by a Catalonia with eight million inhabitants, with an aging population, low birth rate and the arrival of immigrants, a scenario that shows a future complex in management and public services, especially taking into account that the forecast points to an increase in the population.
Thus, the pro-independence leader has pointed out that repeat offenders are usually few, although they cause many problems, and he has related this issue to poverty, social exclusion and dropping out of school, because as he has stressed, they are young people.
“Let’s not mix two debates that have nothing to do with each other. There are those who want to relate them. But it’s a lie, they have nothing to do with it. Crime has to do with poverty, with social exclusion and with the failure of reintegration in some cases,” pointed out the former Catalan president, who took the opportunity to point out that the school dropout rate in Catalonia is above the average. of the European Union considerably and he added that this also has an influence. Likewise, he has focused on other types of crime, such as cybercrime or drug trafficking, which according to him, are now taking root in Catalonia.
In his appearance, Puigdemont reproached other political groups for having initially left JxCat outside of a commitment not to reach an agreement with groups such as Vox and Aliança Catalana that his party has signed. According to Puigdemont, they were not warned at the outset and then an attempt was made to attack them there.
At the press conference, the former president also accused the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, of being “irresponsible” for “inviting a political space to a debate in which he is not invited.” The post-convergent leader was referring to the socialists’ allusions to the formation of Sílvia Orriols, with whom Puigdemont has made it clear that he will not agree directly or indirectly.
“Illa has talked a lot about an extra-parliamentary group. It makes me think a lot about whether their commitment [against the extreme right] is real,” added Puigdemont, who has attacked the socialists for agreeing with the PP, who recalled that in turn he agrees with Vox, at the Barcelona City Council. to deprive Xavier Trias of the mayor’s office of the Catalan capital.
If in the pre-campaign Puigdemont accused ERC of giving wings to Aliança Catalana, this time he has directed criticism at the PSC, comparing that situation with what happened in France, when, as he explained, François Mitterrand gave support to Jean Marie Le’s National Front Pen, then extraparliamentary, with the aim of weakening Jacques Chirac’s Gaullist right. “The extreme right will win European elections in France, it leads the Perpignan City Council and the French Socialist Party, I will not say that it is almost disappeared but it is irrelevant,” he remarked.
In today’s speech, the former president expressed his commitment that all departments of the Catalan executive, if he is the president, keep in mind the future scenario of Catalonia and the demographic challenge, because, as he said, this issue must be addressed. “with a vision of the State” and thinking about what Catalonia will be like in a few years to be able to provide public services and guarantee the welfare State.
Likewise, he has spoken out on specific policies regarding housing. Given the low birth rate, Puigdemont has indicated that it should be encouraged and has promised aid to young people to be able to buy an apartment, with public guarantees for the down payment of the mortgage. He has also pointed out that the regulation of rental prices does not work and has advocated for more officially protected housing, hand in hand with the sector, and that attempts be made to take advantage of the Sareb apartments that are worth it and get the apartments that are now out of the rental market will be out of the rental market again.
