The general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, has demanded from the Government the urgent approval of a housing decree with "very forceful" measures to prevent investment funds and so-called vulture funds from "monopolizing" the market and "raising rents."
From the camp set up at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid to demand dignified housing, in statements to TVE, Sordo has pointed out that the union does not have details about the content of the decree that the Executive is preparing nor does it participate in its negotiation. However, he has insisted that it is essential to implement "urgent measures" both in the short and long term to avoid cases like that of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman evicted last Wednesday in the Madrid district of Retiro.
"I believe that we must prevent the monopolization of housing by investment funds, some of the tourist uses that are being made, which are raising the price of housing; and obviously prevent evictions," the union leader has emphasized.
Sordo has also expressed his support for citizen mobilization and has called on all administrations for "very ambitious policies" to intervene on rental and mortgage prices, which absorb "a good part of the salaries of millions of Spaniards." In his opinion, "The working youth have enormous problems to emancipate themselves, the average age of emancipation is 30."
When asked about the possibility of CCOO calling a general strike, Sordo has emphasized that the union "does not close itself off to any scenario of struggle and mobilization." "What we propose is that the decree be ambitious, to pressure for the validation of the decree if it has good content, and from there there are many things left to do," he has added.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people remain camped at the Puerta del Sol to demand, among other claims, the approval of the so-called 'Maricarmen decree.' In this nerve center of the capital, more than thirty tents have already been set up and a supply area has been organized to assist the participants in the protest.