The spokesperson of the PSOE in Congress, Patxi López, has attacked the leadership of the PP by labeling them as "bad people" for refusing to support and respect the moments of silence held this Thursday in various institutions across the country in memory of Maricarmen, the octogenarian woman who died in Madrid two weeks after being evicted from the rental home where she had lived for more than seventy years.
In an interview on the 'Mañaneros' program of TVE, reported by Europa Press, López has harshly criticized the PP and its leaders not only for refusing to pay tribute to an elderly person like Maricarmen, "who is thrown out of her home after 70 years of paying for it religiously," but also for the statements they have made about her before and after her death.
In his view, this behavior "is nothing more than the demonstration of the moral decay of a party that is led by heartless people, people without feelings, people without empathy, and people without humanity."
"They are bad people," the socialist leader summarized, emphasizing that people with that profile should not be engaged in politics. "Politics is something else; it is not only reason, it is also heart, and we do not need so many heartless people trying to lead a country," he added.
In response to the PP's accusations of politically exploiting Maricarmen's case, López defended that the socialists maintain "a scrupulous respect" for this death, which in his opinion has made it clear that "today the great priority of this country is access to decent housing for many people who cannot access it."
Government Priorities and Housing Policies
In this line, the former lehendakari has rejected, as "some say," that the PSOE has reacted with an eight-year delay. "It is not true," he responded, pointing out that in the first legislature the national priorities, which they already "resolved," were "Catalonia, Covid, employment, and the economy."
He specified that this did not prevent the Executive from also promoting "things" in housing matters. "What happens is that they were not as visible because they were not at the forefront of the priorities and policies of this country," he emphasized.
Specifically, Patxi López has highlighted that in these two legislatures the Government has activated "state housing plans, rehabilitations of 400,000 homes, European funds, and 'house 47'."
Along with this, he has recalled that fiscal measures have been approved to incentivize those who put their properties for rent at affordable prices and to limit evictions. "We have not stopped in the last eight years and now we have reworked the housing decrees," which Congress recently overturned, he indicated.
When asked about the words of his counterpart from the PP, Ester Muñoz, who has acknowledged that she feels "a lot" disgust that the PSOE tries to gain political advantage from the death of Maricarmen, López replied that she must have "very dirty eyes" when the PSOE only sees in that event a "tragedy" that has triggered "the alarm signal" about what citizens demand.
"Do not give us lessons" and the role of the PP
"And since they (the PP) are incapable of providing answers to what citizens want, they will continue in their drift of insults and disqualifications, and of continuing to defend precisely those who were making a profit from Mari Carmen's apartment," denounced the socialist spokesperson, who suggests that the current dilemma is "either we are with those who need a home and with those who should not be evicted from their house, or we are with the vulture funds and with those who throw Mari Carmen out of their homes."
In response to the criticisms from the PP, López emphasized that during all the years that the current popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, presided over the Xunta de Galicia, only "one protected housing" was promoted and that the 24 that have now been put on the market by his successor come from 2017. "Therefore, do not give us lessons," he concluded.