The candidate of Frente Amplio for the general elections on November 29, Ada Colau, has taken advantage of her visit this Tuesday to 'La Revuelta' to respond to Santiago Abascal, interviewed the night before by David Broncano. The former mayor of Barcelona has accused the leader of Vox of spreading "many falsehoods" about social rights, housing and immigration, while defending her proposals to combat real estate speculation, one of the main reasons, as she explained, that have led her to return to the political front line.
Colau began her remarks with a reference to the show’s audience, after the controversy generated by Abascal’s interview. "I don’t know the audience of tonight and I never ask for an audience in my favor when I go on a program. And I’m lucky too not to have had yesterday’s audience," she said.
The candidate then criticized the statements made by Vox’s president during his conversation with Broncano. "A far-right man came who said many falsehoods about social rights, the housing issue or immigration", she said, before asking citizens to keep those claims in mind when they go to vote next November 29.
Her visit to TVE comes barely 24 hours after Abascal’s interview, which gathered 4.8 million viewers and triggered a political clash between Vox leader and Pedro Sánchez over the tone of some of his remarks.
Colau explains why she has returned to politics: "We have to end speculation"
Housing has taken up a large part of the conversation. Colau has said that the real estate crisis was decisive in accepting Frente Amplio’s candidacy after leaving municipal politics two years ago.
"Housing is one of the motivations for why I’ve returned to politics", she said. The former mayor has defended that Spain is going through an exceptional moment in which it is necessary "to end speculation" and ensure that the right to housing can be exercised effectively.
Among the measures she has defended are the stabilization of rents, the renewal of contracts and the reduction of prices. She has also claimed the so-called Maricarmen decrees, rejected by Congress at the beginning of October, amid full social mobilization for the right to housing.
"It is a shame that vulture funds should roam at will," Colau has denounced, who has criticized the accumulation of properties by large owners. At the same time, she has specified that her proposals must protect small property owners.
The example of Barcelona and taxes on large property owners
The candidate has drawn on her experience at the helm of the Barcelona City Hall to argue for greater intervention by public administrations in the real estate market.
Colau has explained that, during her term, the city council used the right of first refusal and right of withdrawal to acquire properties when large owners decided to sell them. As she has stated, this mechanism made it possible to recover 1,600 homes, which could be incorporated into public housing policies.
"If the Barcelona City Council can do that, imagine the State," she said, to argue that these tools should be extended across the country.
The former mayor has also demanded greater fiscal pressure on large estates and real estate owners. To justify it, she has compared the taxation of small businesses, such as hair salons, with that of large financial entities and has cited businessman Florentino Pérez as an example when talking about large fortunes.
The increase in taxes on taxpayers with the greatest economic capacity is one of the proposals that Frente Amplio has incorporated into its discourse ahead of the general elections.
The disguise of 'Supervivienda', Colau's gift to Broncano
The interview has also brought back an image from the early years of Ada Colau's activism. The candidate has given Broncano her costume of 'Supervivienda', the character with which she participated in campaigning actions for the right to housing in 2006.
Dressed as a superheroine, Colau then burst into public events to denounce the difficulties of accessing housing. In those mobilizations, Ernest Urtasun also participated, the current number two on Frente Amplio's candidacy for Congress.
The gift has served to recall the origins of her political career, linked to housing activism before becoming mayor of Barcelona. Two decades after those first protests, Colau has once again placed this demand at the center of her electoral message, less than three weeks before the elections of 29N.