The president of the Comuns in the Catalan Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, has positively valued the "ambitious" agreement reached this Thursday with the Government for the Generalitat Budgets of 2026, emphasizing the priority of housing policies, which will concentrate 2.5 billion euros for the remainder of the legislature.
In a press conference at the party headquarters, after signing the pact with the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, which will allow the Catalan accounts to move forward, Albiach stressed that this is a "legislature budget," as it will be approved in July and the elections scheduled for 2027 could hinder new negotiations.
"I have the intuition that in 2027 it will be difficult," she stated regarding the approval of any accounts for that year, and therefore she advocated for the expansion of the agreement that the Comuns had already reached with the Government last February.
The Comuns leader highlighted that the understanding places housing at the center and reinforces "public services as the basic elementary heritage of working people," in addition to contemplating double the budget for democratic Memory, specific allocations for sexual and reproductive rights, the promotion of renewable energies, and the reinforcement of public transport.
Sanctions and new discipline in housing
Along with the 2.5 billion euros allocated to housing, the Comuns have agreed with the Government on the creation of a General Directorate of Housing Discipline which, according to Albiach, will have "the necessary resources to inspect and sanction."
"When non-compliance with the law has no consequences, what we see is that speculation continues. And for this reason, we also want to send a message to all speculators in our country, specifically to vulture funds: we will end speculation," she affirmed.
In this regard, she criticized that the fines provided for in the current sanctioning regime "are merely anecdotal" and reproached the Government for not having had sufficient determination or ambition until now to punish violations of the housing law.
When asked about the profile of the person who will assume the new General Directorate, Albiach indicated that it will be "a person with political vision, but above all, with experience, sensitivity, who perfectly knows the situation of the market, how vulture funds are expelling people from their homes."
The agreement also includes the possibility of transforming offices and commercial premises into protected housing. "Legally it can be done," Albiach assured, who estimated that around 27,000 homes could be incorporated into the public housing stock in the city of Barcelona alone.
The Zucman Tax is left out of the pact
However, consensus was not reached to integrate the so-called 'Zucman Tax' into the Budgets, a new tax that aims to levy at least 2% on assets over 100 million euros.
Albiach indicated that, due to the lack of agreement, the Comuns will nevertheless register the proposal in the Parliament: "The Government will have to take off the mask and decide whether to support this law or not."
In the area of transport, the party has agreed with the Government to redefine the R-Aeroport project with a 2030 horizon, to turn it into an extension of the R4 line that reaches Terrassa or Manresa (Barcelona).
Bimonthly monitoring and opposition role
The leader of the Comuns stressed that, despite the budget agreement, her group will continue to act as opposition to the Government and announced that they will monitor the degree of compliance with the pact through a monitoring committee that will meet every 2 months.
She insisted that her commitment to having Budgets "goes hand in hand with demanding from the Government, with oversight, asking for explanations every time they carry out a policy" that they do not agree with, and demanding accountability if they deem it necessary.
Finally, in relation to the negotiations between the Generalitat and the educational unions, she admitted to not knowing the budgetary margin available to the Government for that committee, but concluded: "I am convinced that there is willingness on both sides."