The Minister of Housing and head of the PSOE list to Congress for Ciudad Real, Isabel Rodríguez, has accused this Monday the PP president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of trying to return to the 1996 model in housing policy in order to “keep playing Monopoly” and to benefit those who speculate with a property considered essential.
Rodríguez has reacted in this way to Feijóo’s statements in an interview published this Sunday by El País, where the PP leader advanced that, if he reaches La Moncloa, he will repeal the housing decrees approved by the current Government after concluding that they harm both homeowners and renters.
At the presentation of the socialist candidacy in Ciudad Real for the general elections on November 29, the Housing official has censured that the “popular” leader proposes eliminating tenant protection measures and has set against the PSOE approach the approach of the PP.
“Now the Spanish people will have to choose whether to keep building public housing or for them to buy luxury penthouses,” she said, referring to the real-estate controversies that have surrounded the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The minister has emphasized that the socialist Government has strengthened public investment in housing, has pushed through national regulations that previously did not exist, and has driven a public company aimed at expanding the residential stock at affordable prices.
Along these lines, she has stressed that the PSOE will maintain intervention in the real-estate market while difficulties in accessing housing persist, with special attention to renting.
Rodríguez has advanced that the socialist electoral program, which will be made public in the coming days, will include new initiatives in this area and has asked for a sufficient parliamentary majority to be able to apply them without the blockages that, as she indicated, have marked the last legislature.
Elections to “renew the democracy”
Beyond the housing issue, Rodríguez described the elections of November 29 as a key appointment for the direction of the country. “They are about renewing the democracy,” she said, warning that, although alternation is inherent to the system, she believes that today the right’s offer amounts to an “involution.”
The candidate has argued that “there is no country proposal on the right, only insult and hate,” and has called for broad participation to defend the social advances of recent years.
Likewise, he has claimed the investments deployed by the governments of Pedro Sánchez in the province of Ciudad Real, asserting that "never before" had an investment effort on a similar scale been reached in public policies.
House 47 and new housing actions in Ciudad Real
At the provincial level, Rodríguez referred to the 3.2 million euros obtained from the sale of four plots of the Oretania Business Park to the City Council of Ciudad Real, funds that the Ministry of Housing committed to reinvest in full in the purchase of affordable housing in the capital.
The minister defended this scheme, under which the resources generated by industrial developments promoted by the former Sepes, now House 47, are used to increase the residential supply in the municipalities where economic activity is concentrated.
However, he admitted that the public call to acquire homes in Ciudad Real has only received four bids, so he advanced that the money not used in these operations will remain reserved for future affordable housing actions in the city.
Rosa Melchor appeals to the useful vote
For her part, the head of the Socialist ticket to the Senate, Rosa Melchor, called for mobilizing the electorate and highlighted the closeness and track record of a candidacy made up mostly of mayors and councilors.
After the campaign committee meeting, she assured that the PSOE is facing the elections with "a tremendous amount of strength, desire, and enthusiasm" and with the conviction that it can renew citizens' trust.
Melchor called for a "useful" vote, appealing to the progress achieved by workers, women, young people, students, people with disabilities, and the LGTBI collective.
At the same time, she warned that an eventual change of government would, in her view, mean a step backward in matters of rights, well-being, and social protection.