The candidate of Frente Amplio for the elections of 29N, Ada Colau, has defended the creation of a new tribute aimed at the ultra-rich, which would be applied to assets from one million euros. This measure is part of a broader tax reform that also increases the tax burden on banks and large companies, with the goal of obtaining more than 10,000 million euros in additional revenue.
In detail, Colau proposes a 2% rate on total wealth for those who exceed one million euros, which would rise to 3% for fortunes of more than 50 million euros. The fee would be reduced taking into account what has already been paid for Wealth Tax and Great Fortunes, and in no case would it apply to wages or pensions.
From the candidacy they have specified that this tax would affect around 231,000 people, about 1% of the taxpayers who file their income tax return. They also estimate that the 1,200 largest fortunes in the country, with assets exceeding 50 million euros, would contribute one third of the total revenue, which would be used to finance public services, pensions and the modernization of the rail system, among other areas.
The fiscal plan also includes the elimination of various tax breaks from which large companies and financial entities benefit, in order to raise their effective rate on net profits. They recall that, up to September, the banking sector has accumulated profits of 26,000 million euros.
Colau has stressed that the effective rate currently borne by large business and banks stands between 7 and 9%, while SMEs assume between 19 and 20%, practically double what financial entities pay.
Support from Nacho Álvarez and tax reform
These proposals have been presented this Thursday during an informational breakfast of Nueva Economía, held in Madrid, at which it was presented by the former leader of Podemos and former Secretary of State Nacho Álvarez, who was the person responsible for economic affairs in the purple formation.
Álvarez has expressed his direct support for the Frente Amplio candidate by stating that Colau and her political project represent the appropriate option if, in these elections, the aim is to bet on “rebuilding social contracts that sew together the fractures” that the country currently goes through.
In her speech, Colau has detailed various economic initiatives and has outlined a tax reform aimed at redistributing wealth and ensuring access to housing. In this context, she has defended a specific tax on multi-property owners with more than four homes, which would affect 10% of the population with the highest resources and would leave out the small property owner.
The purpose of this levy is to mobilize around 500,000 homes today with “abusive” prices toward affordable rentals, incentivizing an approximate 30% reduction to be exempt from payment. The proposed rate would be 10% and, as she has insisted, its purpose is fundamentally deterrent, not revenue-raising.
Frente Amplio gains weight ahead of 29N
During her address, Colau reproached the President of the Government for announcing in April 2024 that this would be the housing legislature, when, in her view, what would be honest would be to acknowledge that the situation is not good and even is “worse than ever”.
To reverse this scenario, she has argued that Frente Amplio must enter the Congress with force and that the alternative left has to be part of the Executive in order to push the PSOE toward more ambitious policies.
She has recalled that, although the polls were drawing a complicated picture, with the right-wing bloc headed toward victory, she now perceives a more favorable context after the push from Frente Amplio. She calculates that they have already reached around 8% voting intention and finds it feasible to soon reach 10%, a threshold from which seats multiply and could be decisive for governability.
The resignation of Puente and the debate about the railway
Regarding the resignation of the former Transport Minister, Óscar Puente, Colau has reiterated her thanks for this gesture of “dignity” in taking on political responsibilities after two serious accidents on high-speed rail.
In her view, this move prevents the right from using the Urda incident to carry out “electoralism,” and she considers that he has been left “without arguments” because Puente has “made the difference”.
Nevertheless, she has demanded to be “prudent with the language” and not to present this renunciation in the key of “heroism or ordeal” when there are almost 70 fatalities. She has emphasized that “the priority is to throw oneself into the victims, recover public leadership of the rail system, and offer solutions to people”.
Criticism of the United States and a call for peace
In relation to the Ibero-American summit held in Madrid, Colau has argued that, in geopolitical terms, the most appropriate thing is for the United States to “take its claws” out of Latin America, where, in her view, it has carried out “colonial interferences” to favor far-right governments. She has even described the North American military intervention in Venezuela to capture the former president Nicolás Maduro as a “coup d’état.”
Regarding the role of the country in current international conflicts, she has warned that leaders such as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are fueling wars and has defended the need to work intensely for peace, avoiding entering into “arms races.”
“It would be unacceptable to cut public services in order to enter into arms escalations,” she added, criticizing Catalan president Salvador Illa for encouraging the diversification of the business fabric in order to produce armaments at the local level.