He has been throughout the 12-M election campaign announcing that housing would be his priority in the event of being part of the next Government and yesterday he specified a little more his plans in this area: Jéssica Albiach, the candidate of Commons Sumar a the presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya proposed the construction of “250,000 social rental homes that would cost 5,000 million euros”. “They can’t be done all at once”, he acknowledged. “But it’s not an option, it’s an obligation”, he alleged.
The commons understand the concept of social rent from a broad point of view. They refer to emergency flats for people in situations of social exclusion, but also to public rental housing for more extensive layers of the population. At the same time, they want to reserve some homes for certain groups, such as victims of gender-based violence.
Albiach made this proposal at the Barcelona Tribuna forum, a colloquium organized by the Barcelona Economic Society of Friends of the Country, chaired by Miquel Roca, the Spanish Association of Managers and La Vanguardia. From here he denounced that the Executive led by Pere Aragonès has not started the construction of any flats and regretted, once again, the tiny percentages of public housing that exist compared to other European countries.
According to Albiach, access to housing is the “most important emergency” facing Catalonia. To solve it, he adopted “courageous policies”. Beyond massive construction, his bet is the regulation of seasonal rentals and a tax against speculation consisting of taxing the purchase with 30% of the value of the property when the acquisition is not for regular housing.
“How can you have mental health without a guaranteed roof?”, asked the candidate, who already warned that the impetus of housing policies will be a condition sine qua non to agree with Commons Sumar after 12-M.
From his party, a public impulse is also proposed in issues such as, for example, education and healthcare, proposing to boost resources for mental health and dentistry, among other areas. But they also know that achieving these challenges requires resources.
That is why Albiach put his financing model for Catalonia on the table, since he considers that the current one is centralist and “benefits Ayusista Madrid”. For her, in addition to putting a limit on “tax dumping”, a “fraternal” method must be reached but which respects the “principle of ordinality”. In other words, he wants to prevent Catalonia from being one of the territories that “contributes more and receives less”.
Now, for the leader of the commons, the new financing system must be a “proposal of the country and not of the party”. In this sense, he urged to reach an “agreement between the Catalanist forces” and then negotiate it with the State Executive “bilaterally because multilaterally it is not efficient and a competition between autonomies must be avoided”.
Albiach recalled that they have been making this proposal since 2022 without finding support. “I celebrate that Pere Aragonès arrived, albeit late, to launch a financing proposal”, he said. He also opened another economic melon. According to Albiach, the new financing system must also be used to improve the resources of the town councils, which are the “first trench that citizens turn to”. Improving the funding of councils is an eternal claim of these administrations.
“Now is the time to deepen the self-government of Catalonia”, considered the candidate, who is part of a political space with a presence in the State Government through Sumar. In addition to developing the transfer of Rodalies already agreed, it is committed to increasing the weight of the Generalitat in the management of ports and airports.
Albiach ruled out offering tax incentives for the return of companies that moved their tax headquarters outside of Catalonia, fearing the consequences of the unilateral declaration of independence in 2017, an issue that has made a space in the final stretch of the election campaign “It would be unfair for those who stayed”, he reasoned. “We need a tax floor because other communities are doing us a disservice”, he said.
The Commons Sumar candidate was presented by ex-deputy Jaume Asens. After his presentation, he submitted to the questions of the deputy director of this newspaper, Enric Sierra. Regarding renewable energies, he accused the Generalitat of “abandoning their duties”. “We are losing opportunities and we need a green industry as an alternative to mass tourism”, he explained to propose a “massive renewable energy plan”. But the installation of these systems generates certain reluctance in the territory. “We cannot treat Roses like the North Sea. But it cannot be that renewables are generated in Terra Alta and there is not even a windmill in Girona”, he opined.
Two of his most repeated positions were not missing from the colloquium: the rejection of the Hard Rock casino and the expansion of El Prat. “One country, three airports. We have to connect them by train”, he insisted.
And another classic when the elections are approaching, the pacts. He urged the PSC to be clear: “Illa must decide if it wants to govern with the left or with Junts”.
