The federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maíllo, has demanded that the socialist part of the Government show more "punch" in the preparation of the General State Budgets (PGE) for 2027. He warns that it would be "a deception" to bring the project to the Cortes without the real will to push it forward and demands that the accounts include measures to "intervene without fear" in the housing market.
"Every Government worth its salt has to present Budgets," Maíllo emphasized in an interview with Europa Press, recalling that IU has been demanding for years, without success, that new accounts be presented. "Fortunately, we have already been heard for 2027. But we have also said something very serious, that the Budgets are presented to be approved and that it would be a deception to society to present Budgets knowing that they will not be won," he pointed out.
In this line, he admits that in his organization they are "aware that there is a lack of punch in that will for them to be made and for them to be elaborated so that they are approved" and demands "to exhaust all avenues" to achieve their approval. In his view, they must be "Budgets such that no one dares to oppose them, because it would entail a cost in political and electoral terms."
Housing, the central axis of the 2027 accounts
Maíllo places housing policy as the absolute priority of what would be the first public accounts of the legislature. "The great challenge and pending subject is housing and it is no longer a question of long-term planning with the construction of public housing, but of the meantime," he specifies, insisting on the urgency to act to ensure "affordable prices."
He argues that the Budgets should serve to promote "an intervention in the market" that goes beyond the simple extension of the rents that the Government plans to approve in September through a new decree law, and also include a moratorium on tourist apartments.
In this sense, he demands "proposals for tax incentives for the reversal of tourist housing into non-temporary but permanent housing" with the aim that "it is more profitable for owners to have housing for permanent rental rather than as tourist housing."
"Each tourist home is the elimination of a human right to housing for families or for young people who want to emancipate themselves and that is why we must intervene in the market without fear," he emphasized, also requesting the signing of agreements with the municipalities to "bypass the blockages to the application of the Housing Law that are being made by the autonomous communities."
At the same time, the leader of IU again criticizes the increase in military spending, emphasizing that in this bet the socialists "will not find them," and claims the reforms of the dependency laws promoted by the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, which have "doubled the funds for dependency, removing masks and excuses from the autonomous governments."
Relationship with Junts and possible Sánchez-Puigdemont meeting
Questioned about whether the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, should meet with the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to secure Junts' support for the budget project, Maíllo considers that the independentist leader is "a very unpredictable character" and doubts that his support depends on a possible meeting with the head of the Executive. "I think they are more concerned about their competition with Aliança Catalana than with the approval of the Budget," he points out.
He reiterates that "the key to the negotiation" lies in presenting accounts to which the partners find it "very hard to say no" and, in the case of Junts, that they are forced to justify, for example, a rejection of an increase in investment in Rodalies.
"That seems to me to be more decisive than the 'performance' or the symbolism of a meeting, without that being irrelevant, because I believe that we must talk to everyone," he adds, also convinced that Puigdemont "has every right to return to Spain." "It seems to me a scandal that amnesty is not applied to him as it has been applied to the rest, and, above all, after the reprimand that European Justice has given to the Supreme Court," he adds.
The Zapatero case and the responsibilities of the PSOE
On another note, Maíllo declares himself "absolutely bewildered" by the case affecting former President of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, investigated by the National Court for his possible role in the rescue of the Venezuelan airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic.
The leader of IU is particularly surprised by the matter of the jewels valued at 1.3 million that Zapatero kept in a safe in his professional office and by the participation of his daughters' company, which, in his opinion, carried out a billing "absolutely disproportionate to the size of the company."
Asked if Sánchez's insistence on showing his confidence in Zapatero's innocence could harm the Executive, he emphasizes that "the problem" with Zapatero and also with the conviction of former minister José Luis Ábalos for "corruption" is "with the PSOE" and stresses that "it is evident that Sánchez will assume the responsibility for his statements" about the former president.
"Zapatero, like any person, is innocent until proven otherwise. But, evidently, he has to give many explanations about actions that have generated many surprises in many people who had confidence in him," concludes the leader of IU.