It took Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida an hour to take stock of his first year of government with an absolute majority in the Madrid City Council during the extraordinary plenary session this Tuesday in Cibeles. Housing and security have been some of the key issues that the municipal councilor highlighted during his presentation, in which he listed the achievements of the government areas. All without ceasing to throw darts at the opposition during his first intervention and for 30 more minutes in his two turns of responses: “They have a survival model,” he told them.
Almeida has once again attacked the Central Government’s Housing Law and has defended that his model, based on increasing supply, will be the one that provides “real solutions” to the housing deficit in the capital. The mayor has highlighted the projects of the Madrid Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS) with which, before the end of the year, they will deliver “740 new homes.” In addition, he has announced a 45-story project coliving municipal –in which common spaces such as the laundry are shared with other neighbors – for the youngest. Only 17% of young people under 30 years of age are capable of emancipating themselves in the Community of Madrid, according to the Emancipation Observatory.
The pilot project will be affordable rental and is expected to be put out to tender before the end of the year, as confirmed by the EMVS. Thus, the City Council aims to meet the “different” residential needs of young people. “Others [jóvenes] They are looking for a space that allows them to connect and live individually with students or professionals in their sector, prioritizing central or well-connected locations,” added the EMVS.
Regarding housing for tourist use (VUT) in Madrid, of which more than 92% are illegal, as recognized by the City Council itself, Almeida has assured that the capital has the “leadership in the adoption of measures”, such as the creation of a list with only 7.4% of the VUTs that are legal. Since May, when the City Council recognized that there were more than 10,000 illegal VUTs and that there would be an increase in sanctions, only one sanction process for 60,000 euros has been opened for one tourist apartment, as acknowledged by the mayor himself. “We are not going to adopt the measures of the Barcelona City Council,” Almeida insisted, alluding to the announcement by his counterpart Jaume Collboni to eliminate tourist apartments in the Catalan capital in the next five years.
Our housing policies:
✅ Unlocking of urban developments, with 200,000 homes in the southeastern developments.
✅ Ultimate unlock of Operation Camp.
✅ Delivery of 750 homes this year and 6,500 in execution.
✅ Coliving project with 45 homes… pic.twitter.com/xwnPtffjKC— Grupo Popular Madrid (@GrupoPPMadrid) June 25, 2024
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Regarding Security, the mayor has announced that he will present a new ordinance in the second half of 2024 that guarantees “coexistence and prevention of antisocial behavior” among which he has classified street vending, occupation or graffiti. “We are going to regulate and include in a single text from the Madrid City Council the prevention, deterrence and prosecution of all antisocial behaviour,” said Almeida after highlighting the installation of 56 video surveillance cameras in the city and having arrested 15 people. for making graffiti and “attacking Madrid’s heritage.”
Almeida has not missed the opportunity to clash with the central government. He has attacked President Pedro Sánchez because “he does not authorize the 1,000 municipal police officers that Madrid lacks” and against the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, whom he has called “the Cercanías Minister” and whom he has recriminated. having classified Madrid as “the European capital most backward in sustainable mobility”. Now that the PP enjoys an absolute majority, the mayor has also charged against Vox for having overturned Madrid’s new urban plan, which the popular party has managed to recover in the new legislature.
The opposition parties have responded harshly. “Everything doesn’t matter to him, because he doesn’t even have principles,” councilor Javier Ortega Smith (Vox) told him at the beginning of his intervention. The socialist spokesperson, Reyes Maroto, in imitation of Pedro Sánchez, has accused Almeida of being part of “the mud machine.” Maroto has also criticized the housing, cleaning, social services and environmental policies. Rita Maestre (Más Madrid), for her part, has tried to champion the housing issue during her intervention, by proposing measures such as preventing the purchase of apartments in stressed areas if it is not going to be used as a first home.
Almeida, in his turn to speak, has disqualified all the opposition spokespersons. He has told Ortega Smith that he was “a caricature of himself”; He has mockingly commented to Maroto: “he neither studies, nor works, nor reads” city issues; and he has tried to link Maestre with Podemos: “You have made a speech with the style of Yolanda Díaz and with the content of Pablo Iglesias, Irene Montero and Ione Belarra.”
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