The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, has held responsible this Wednesday the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for the eviction of Maricarmen, whom she accuses of having rolled out the "red carpet" for vulture funds, including the one that has purchased the home where this Madrid neighbor lived with an old rent contract. At the same time, she has urged PP and Junts to support in Congress a new anti-eviction moratorium for cases affecting vulnerable people.
In the corridors of Congress, the socialist minister has acknowledged that it is a "very sad and dramatic" day, in which the "consequences of wild speculation" are made evident. She defended that her department has "done a lot" to try to prevent the eviction of this 87-year-old woman, who had been living in the same apartment for 71 years.
Rodríguez explained that the Executive has accompanied the case from the institutional level, supporting the United Nations resolution that called for the precautionary suspension of the eviction, and also developing a mediation effort between the owning company and the affected party.
"We have contacted the company to make them understand that above their economic interest is the social character of this housing and the life of Mari Carmen; we have mediated to be able to acquire that housing, to be able to compensate those rents, as private individuals are also doing today. But when we try to do all this, there are those who are working in the opposite direction," she recounted.
Criticism of Ayuso for her relationship with vulture funds
The minister has pointed directly at the Madrid president, whom she attributes the "maximum responsibility in housing matters" in the region, reproaching her that, while social and neighborhood groups mobilized on Tuesday in support of Maricarmen, she "went again to roll out the red carpet for speculators and vultures to tell them that they do not intend to regulate the market and that they can continue to roam freely."
Rodríguez was referring to the visit that Ayuso and the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, made to the real estate fair The District. In her opinion, this institutional support is "the excuse for those funds to then disregard the administrations and not care a bit about criticism and social movement."
"The company mocks public administrations and the Spanish citizenry because it has a president who protects them," summarized the minister, who accuses the owners of "beating around the bush" in the face of the Government's mediation attempts, until "they have been backed by other administrations that do not lift a finger even at the call of the United Nations, of the neighbors, nor to the minimum humanity required to address the situation of a 87-year-old person who today is going to find themselves on the street."
Call to PP and Junts to save the moratorium
Despite everything, Rodríguez has insisted that the Executive is not "going to give up" and has emphasized that Parliament "has a lot to say" on housing matters. She has recalled that her ministry has brought to Congress on three occasions during the last year the extension of the anti-eviction moratorium, which has faced rejection from PP, Vox, and Junts.
"Since July, political groups have had a proposal on the table that goes much further so that, structurally, we can finally put an end to this situation and that administrations like Mrs. Ayuso do not get their way," she has pointed out, demanding that the parties support these measures.
In this context, she has asked the PP that, despite its "drift to the far-right," feels "addressed" by what is happening with Maricarmen, and has also appealed to "all the groups that have at times supported the Government," referring to Junts, to vote in favor of the anti-eviction moratorium.
The Government publicly aligns "with Maricarmen"
The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, has taken advantage of the control session to stage the Government's support for the evicted elderly woman. "In the end, each of us represents a part of society and you (PP and Vox) are with the technoligarchs, with those who trample on international law, you with the heartless speculators and we with Mari Carmen."
In similar terms, the spokesperson for the Socialist Group, Patxi López, has expressed that "what fails" in this matter are Ayuso and the PP. "The ministry has brought here a proposal to limit the capacity of the funds to evict and there is no majority to push it forward because there are political formations that hold congresses with vulture funds. That is where the failure lies," he has emphasized.