The mayor of Badalona and head of the list for Barcelona to the Congress of Deputies in the elections on the upcoming November 29, Xavier García Albiol, has announced that he will propose a tightening of penalties against squatters, so that, "if he is Spanish, to prison and if he is foreign, expelled" to his country of origin.
These statements were made on the program La Mirada Crítica of Tele 5, in an interview collected by Europa Press, where he detailed his plans to take on the task that was conveyed to him yesterday by the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, with the aim of addressing the problem of housing occupation in Spain.
Albiol emphasized that this is a "very serious" problem, especially in Catalonia, a territory where around 40 percent of the country's property occupations are concentrated. For this reason, he has requested that the vote be "agglutinated" in the Popular Party so that, once the new legislature begins, he can gather specialists and affected groups and register a legislative initiative that entails changes in various regulations.
Protection for the vulnerable and fight against the mafias
The Popular leader has clarified that it is necessary to distinguish between vulnerable people who, due to different circumstances, cannot meet the payment of the mortgage or rent, and occupants who act criminally. In the first case, he argued that "they need to have support from social services."
However, he stressed that "the vast majority of occupations are by people who live off the occupation or are part of mafias that create problems of incivility and crime." Therefore, he reiterated that a legal reform is essential to "toughen penalties against crime and those who make life impossible for neighbors."
As he explained, as mayor he faces this situation on a daily basis. When incidents occur, he is informed that many of those involved have between 30 and 40 prior records. In this scenario, his approach is clear: "the Spanish repeat offender, to prison, and the foreigner, immediately expelled from Spain."
Criticism of the blockage of the anti-squatter law by Junts
Albiol has also responded to the spokesperson of Junts, Miriam Nogueras, who recalled that her party registered an anti-occupation law three years ago. In his view, the paradox is that the PSOE and its allies have kept it paralyzed since then, despite the fact that Junts has been "supporting the Government".
"What would it have cost Junts to say that in exchange for staying one more week in the Government they would unblock the anti-occupation law," he pointed out, before highlighting that in Badalona they have managed to reduce the number of occupations and that more than 50 percent of attempts "are aborted".
In Albiol's opinion, there is a broad social majority in Catalonia that coincides with the PP's position on this matter, which he places around 70 percent, and he argues that it is not an ideological issue of left or right. "It cannot be that someone breaks into an apartment and has more protection than the owner, who is dedicated to making life impossible for the neighbors and that they cannot do anything," he concluded.