The candidate of Frente Amplio, Ada Colau, has admitted that the disunity of the alternative left has been the great burden of her political space, causing fatigue among the electorate, and has defended that “taxes are sexy” when they focus on raising the tax burden on the “megabillionaires.” Along those lines, she has addressed the president of Grupo ACS to send the message “Florentino (Pérez), we’re going to raise your taxes.”
At the same time, she has underlined that she has “not been PSOE-ified” by the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and has reproached the socialists that the housing issue sticks in their throat. She has also argued that relations with the monarchy must be restricted to the “minimum cordiality.”
In her appearance on TVE’s ‘La Revuelta,’ collected by Europa Press, she explained that the housing crisis has been decisive in making the leap as a candidate for the Moncloa in these elections, and that her main objective upon returning to the front line is to prevent the formation of a “far-right government” in Spain and to ensure that the PSOE “is not complicit with speculation.”
To introduce a comic point into the interview, Colau presented the show’s host, David Broncano, with a costume of ‘Supervivienda,’ the outfit she used during her time as an activist when she broke into party events in 2007 to demand commitments on housing matters. One of those actions took place at an ICV event in which the current Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, was participating.
With regard to housing, the Frente Amplio candidate has reiterated that, during her term as mayor of Barcelona, she stood up to investment funds and that now they need to have enough negotiating leverage against the PSOE, since the socialists find the real-estate matter “very difficult.”
The housing challenge and the role of the PSOE
She has also pointed out that there are socialist leaders who have ended up in business organizations in the sector through the “revolving doors,” and she has mentioned the former minister Joan Clos, while Frente Amplio proposes expropriating homes from “vulture funds.”
Colau has also reproached that he has seen Sánchez “wring out the bulk” in housing policy since 2019, when he publicly committed to her to push forward a law to limit rent and, finally, it was approved five years later after successive excuses. He added that he told her that she could not set housing aside, that she had to “get her act together” and that she “has not been PSOEized” by the president.
Likewise, he has claimed one of Frente Amplio’s central measures: a specific tax on the mega-rich to obtain resources with which to expand the stock of public housing at affordable prices and reduce the “brutal” inequality that, in his view, exists in the Spanish tax system between SMEs and large fortunes.
Taxes on the mega-rich and personal wealth
After insisting that the proceeds from that levy would also be used to strengthen public services such as healthcare, education, and pensions, he has reiterated that taxes “are sexy if those who have the most pay” through a charge on the “milmillonarios”.
He has detailed that, in order to improve the pensions of the 2 million people who only earn 900 euros, it is essential to raise taxes on the large fortunes and on entrepreneurs like Florentino Pérez, whom he has indicated has assets of 4,900 million. “Florentino, we are going to raise your taxes,” he reiterated, joking that the businessman “will understand it”.
As for his economic situation, he responded to the program’s classic question about his wealth by recalling that on other occasions he has said that he could “have more than 400,000 euros in the bank,” but that in reality he has less than 10,000. He has clarified that he does not carry debts because he already knows well how financial institutions work.
Break with Podemos and a bid for unity
Regarding the separation between Frente Amplio and Podemos in these elections, after attempts to run together on 29N failed, Colau has refused to define that lack of agreement as “absolute failure” and has highlighted that his list brings together around a dozen parties, something that, as a plural confluence, “is not bad”.
He has reiterated that he did everything possible to integrate Podemos into the coalition he leads, but that if a political force — with reference to the magentas — “doesn’t want to be in a broad front, then you cannot force it.”
He has stressed that she was willing to accept any concession in order to achieve the maximum unity of the left, even to consider a change of name of the candidacy or to step aside and for another person to lead the list if that made it easier to reach broad agreement among the organizations. Since the confluence with Podemos has not come to fruition, she has concluded that there is only the need to respect the decision and “move forward”.
End of the 15M cycle and fatigue due to division
Asked about the loss of electoral support for the left, the head of the list of Frente Amplio has indicated that the political cycle opened with the 15M is nearing its end and that a new stage begins, visible in the current mobilizations in defense of the right to housing.
She has argued that, despite the fact that the alternative left has made important advances in different governments during the last decade, she assumes the “nothing original” self-criticism that the “divisions of the lefts” have harmed that political space.
“That is why we have to make a major effort now to have much more unity, because clearly people are fed up with there being division in the left when, by contrast, the right is capable of, even though they have internal divisions, presenting itself much more united,” she has reflected.