The Ministry of Housing had been pointing out for several days that the minister’s appearance, this Wednesday in Congress, was a good opportunity to explain the Executive’s policies in one of the matters that most concern citizens and that have caused discontent. moves to the streets in several cities across the country. The wording of the request, signed by the Government’s usual partners, did not bode well for a good morning. ERC, Bildu and the Mixed group wanted Isabel Rodríguez to give explanations for the “innation” and the “lack of measures” to guarantee access to decent housing. Also about his words “appealing to the solidarity of the owners as a way to contain the rise in rental prices.”
“I understand the semantic discourse,” said Rodríguez from the rostrum, where he defended that in the eleven months he has been in charge of the portfolio, what he has done is “not stop.” “Others, what is today a ministry, preferred to leave it to a general direction with meager budgets,” he disfigured the popular bench. It was precisely the PP spokesperson who carried out the thickest intervention. “What I have heard has been really disappointing,” Sergio Sayas told her, noting that the minister “sees herself more outside the Government than she seems.”
Sayas, the UPN turncoat who tried to overthrow the labor reform, now enrolled in the PP, accused Rodríguez of “evident incompetence in housing matters.” To conclude his intervention, he proposed a series of measures: provide land to build public and private housing, streamline urban planning procedures and reduce bureaucracy, encourage housing rehabilitation, provide tax incentives, public aid and guarantees and guarantee legal security against the occupation.
Minutes before, the Minister of Housing had developed some lines of her action that included, precisely, aid for housing rehabilitation, guarantees for families and those under 35 years of age, the land law that sought to streamline urban planning procedures and that It overthrew the PP, tax incentives and the provision of public land for the construction of housing, in this case public and at affordable prices. “We are going to make more public land of the State available for housing policies,” he promised, as well as guarantee its protection “in perpetuity.”
“Today’s appearance has been requested by Bildu, ERC and the Mixed Group, curiously, groups that were involved in the negotiation of the Housing Law and that supported its approval. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?
Pilar Valluguera
— CKD
But perhaps the criticism that could do the most damage to the Government came from its investiture partners. And, on this front, the minister had no respite either. “Today’s appearance has been requested by Bildu, ERC and the Mixed Group, curiously, groups that were involved in the negotiation of the Housing Law and that supported its approval. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Doesn’t it make you suspect that some of the agreements, something that was agreed upon, has not been carried out? Don’t you find it surprising that, a year and a half later, we are asking you to appear because they haven’t had enough courage to move forward?” questioned ERC deputy Pilar Valluguera, who accused Rodríguez of being “very happy “if they had met.”
Valluguera, however, recognized that it is the autonomous communities that have the powers to plug one of the “big holes in the welfare state.” In that sense, he warned that they would overthrow the regulations for seasonal rentals in which the Ministry works if it invades powers and discredited Rodríguez’s intention to “go to the end of his regulatory capacity.” “Don’t threaten me,” said the ERC deputy, who demanded that the Government stand up to vulture funds. “I speak of great cowardice,” he lamented in a speech in which he criticized the youth rental bonus and claimed to have the “systematic feeling” that the ministry is “on the side of the owners”: “Where has it been seen that in a market economy, a left-wing government cannot intervene to balance the situation?”
“I have no doubt that you will know which side you are on, because if not, you have less time left than a 600 euro apartment published in Idealista”
Alberto Ibanez
— Add
If on Tuesday the second vice president Yolanda Díaz affirmed that the Government was not doing everything possible to alleviate the housing crisis, this Wednesday the deputy of Sumar in Congress, Alberto Ibáñez Mezquita asked to “react.” “We cannot make (the phrase) the economy goes like a rocket our green shoots,” he said from the rostrum, where he regretted not having been “able to convince the PSOE and the rest of the Chamber that housing is a right.” , not a market good.” Before returning to his seat, Ibáñez questioned Rodríguez: “I have no doubt that he will know which side he is on, because if not, he has less time left than a 600-euro apartment published in Idealista.”
Bildu spokesperson Oskar Matute, in a much more temperate tone, pointed out that “there are too many words and a lack of actions, actions and determination” in the face of an “unsustainable” situation. “What would make sense is to test whether there is a majority that agrees with the hierarchy of the right to housing over any other right,” he asked. In that sense, Matute transferred responsibilities, from the city councils, which can tax empty homes, as Rodríguez herself recalled, to the communities, developing the housing law or their own autonomous laws, passing through the state powers, which would allow everyone to Sareb’s assets are used “solely” for protected housing.
“Lack of self-criticism”
Also other groups that voted against or abstained in the processing of the Housing Law in the last legislature, but that support the Government, have been critical of Rodríguez. “I have missed a bit of self-criticism in relation to the development of the law,” said PNV deputy Maribel Vaquero. The BNG deputy, Néstor Rego, considered that the Government “has not carried out effective management in this matter in six years.”
“Madam Minister, I see your partners a little angry,” analyzed the Junts deputy, Marta Madrenas, who indicated that “the lack of public and private housing is straining both citizens and public services to the limit.” “We see a Government that is somewhat overwhelmed by the situation, that does not have the courage required to face the current situation and that allows itself to be dragged from one side to the other by proposals that are incompatible with each other,” I believe. Junts announced this Tuesday that it would support the processing of a new law to regulate seasonal rentals.
The deputy and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, pointed out that the minister’s policies and speech are “indistinguishable” from those of the Popular Party. “This year, when only you are in charge in the Government and there is not that annoying noise that Podemos made, they only know how to make right-wing policies, such as the endorsement of mortgages or the land law, modeled on that of the PP. And not only that, they have abandoned a housing law that, despite all the holes they left, could have served to control price increases if they had applied it,” said Belarra, referring to the communities where the socialists govern. .
“They defend rentiers because they are rentiers,” considered Belarra, who questioned the minister about her next destination: “Does she intend to be the next president of the Association of Rental Home Owners (Asval)?” It didn’t stop there. In this session, the purple party has been the only one that has conditioned its support, “four essential votes”, on the Government “lowering rents by 40%” and prohibiting the purchase of housing that “is not for residence”, as well as the “dismantling” of groups like desokupa.
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