The candidate of Frente Amplio for Prime Minister in the general elections of 29 November, Ada Colau, has defended in Zaragoza that support for her party "is what decides that Feijóo and Abascal do not govern" and has predicted that, with the rise in voting intention, they could surpass 10 percent of the ballots, which would translate into more than 22 seats in the Congress of Deputies.
During her speech, she stressed that "Don't have any doubt. It is the vote that decides that Blackstone or Airbnb also do not govern. It is the vote that decides that homes are for living in, not for speculation. It is the vote that decides to raise pensions, raise salaries, and strengthen our public services so that they are worthy".
At the rally held in the Aragonese capital, Colau insisted on the usefulness of every ballot, recalling the recent “minimums” royal decree on housing approved by the Permanent Delegation of the Congress. "That is the difference, the one vote, between having rights or not, between moving forward or going back because each vote makes it possible to get further", she said, before emphasizing that "There is one seat that could be the deciding one, the one that changes everything, and it is played for today here, in Zaragoza, with Marina Rodríguez, when she is a Member of Parliament. Don't have any doubt that Frente Amplio is the vote that decides".
After stressing that fifteen days are left until the date with the ballot boxes, she warned that "they are two weeks where everything is at stake" and called on those who "are anguished or suffering to make it to the end of the month and who have doubts" to mobilize. In her view, "We have two weeks to activate our people and hope, which doesn't come from the sky, but is built with our hands fighting every day".
Against those, according to what she said, who want citizens "depressed and resigned," Colau assured them that "they are not going to achieve it" and issued a "direct appeal to all the women who don't want to lose" or allow setbacks "in a single one of the rights," citing "deciding about the body, the laws that fight against gender-based violence, pensions, public healthcare, or quality public education".
Unity and mobilization in the polls
Colau has appealed to the "UNITY" and has asked "all the people who today may be dissatisfied, who may feel in part disappointed, who doubt" to join a common project. "To all the people, let’s get together and make the impossible possible. Unity has done it many times. When it seemed impossible, people came together and made the impossible possible. And on November 29 we are going to do it again," he predicted.
He has reiterated his commitment and that of all the Frente Amplio candidacies, assuring that "they are not going to fail" and that they are aware of the significance of this political moment. "We’re going to put everything on the line," he said, claiming that there are reasons for "optimism" in the face of those who "don’t want anything to change or want to keep piling up privileges" and prefer that "we all be depressed at home."
As an argument, he cited a survey published this Sunday that places Frente Amplio above 9% voting intention, after having kicked off the campaign with "uncertainty" and having reached 8% the week before. "But we’re going for more," he emphasized, explaining that that 9% could translate into 19 seats, while going beyond 10 percent would open the door to 22 deputies.
With these data on the table, he has urged making it so that "hope wins" and "turning the polls around, as in Brazil and in the United States." In his view, "There are two weeks left, and the mobilization of the people that is going to make the difference and make it possible to have a progressive government that really changes things and allows us to move forward."
Three messages to the right and to the PSOE
In the final part of the event, Colau directed "THREE MESSAGES" to the "right and to the far right." He has accused the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of having started the campaign "by 'taking on'" the agenda of the "far right" and, although later he corrected himself, he has said that "he had already said it and now he tries to disguise it as a serious manager, but he can’t hide the leaders of his party like Albiol or Ayuso."
Madrid’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has denounced that "she has put out the red carpet for vulture funds while insulting Maricarmen and then buys a modest home of almost 7 million euros with public money." The head of the PP’s list for Barcelona, Xavier García Albiol, has criticized that, as mayor of Badalona, she has made "zero public housing," and has accused him of being the spokesperson for the "far right of the PP" for saying "like Abascal that if it were up to him he would segregate children according to the color of their skin," warning that "it is not going to be tolerated."
Against this "little cruel and arrogant right-wing with workers and subservient to the ultrarich," Colau has proclaimed that "To this little cruel and arrogant right-wing with workers and subservient to the ultrarich we say that next November 29 Feijóo will not have any ministries to hand out." The public has responded by chanting with clapping "They will not pass."
She has also sent a message to the President of the Government and PSOE candidate, Pedro Sánchez, warning him that "comment on the mistake and you’re wrong when you get caught up in insults with the right and then call for the useful vote to prevent the far right from winning." In her view, "a useful left is necessary like Frente Amplio so that from the ballot boxes a progressive government comes out with all the ambition to keep moving forward with the boldness that Sánchez has not known how to do, by standing up to the speculators." She has warned that the socialist leader will not do it "if Frente Amplio does not enter with force" and that he does not "force the PSOE to face the speculators."
Housing, taxation and public services
Colau has gone over, "quickly," some of the programmatic priorities of Frente Amplio. She has placed housing as one of the main factors of "inequality" and has reiterated that homes are to live in and not to speculate with. In this sense, she has defended "expropriation of vulture funds and that everyone can pay for a home without ruining their life."
On the fiscal front, she has proposed raising the tax burden on the "super-rich," the 1% of the population, in order to "redistribute wealth to those who it belongs to," which, as she has said, "are the ones who have worked their whole life," and to guarantee not only the maintenance, but also the increase of pensions. She has also demanded that the 3.5 million self-employed people can "have more rights and less bureaucracy" and has argued for strengthening public healthcare and "including the dentist, glasses and hearing aids."
Among the anti-corruption measures, he has mentioned the need to strengthen public oversight and, after referring to a second “terrible” accident at high speed, he has called for a “railway State pact” to recover the investment and “public oversight of maintenance,” as well as to carry out the pending investments in Cercanías, with the aim of structuring the territory and strengthening a key means of transport for the working class.
Colau has reproached those who resort to insult for seeking to polarize and return to the “old two-party system with alternating parties” that “no longer gave more of itself,” reminding them that Spain is “a plural country and proudly diverse” that aims to work “through cooperation and with its own voice, like Aragon.”
Personal connection with Aragon and closing of the event
The candidate has shared her “ORIGINS OF ARAGON,” explaining that on her father’s side her family comes from Güel, in the La Ribagorza region (Huesca), and she has recalled that her grandmother María had to emigrate to Barcelona, where she spent many years “as a servant in the homes of rich people, and it went badly for her.”
The central campaign event of CHA-Frente Amplio Aragón has been presented by the president of Chunta Aragonesista, Jorge Pueyo, and it has included remarks by the head of the list to the Congress for Zaragoza, Marina Rodríguez; number 3 for Madrid, Toni Valero; and number 4 for Madrid, Verónica Martínez.