The Podemos candidate for the elections on November 29, Irene Montero, defended this Tuesday the need to prevent real estate speculation and resort to the expropriation of vulture funds as a way to address the issue of access to housing. "A house cannot be bought if it is to make a profit," she emphasized.
In an interview on "La Revuelta," reported by Europa Press, both Irene Montero and the ERC candidate, Gabriel Rufián, insisted that housing has become the main social emergency, above other challenges.
To tackle this, Montero proposed reducing rents by 40%, banning speculation, and expropriating the homes of vulture funds to allocate them to social rental with "fair prices." "One family, one house," emphasized the Podemos leader.
Alongside these measures, she proposed increasing the minimum interprofessional salary to 1,800 euros and nationalizing or expropriating companies considered strategic, especially pointing to the energy and food sectors. "You can't make money with people turning on the heating; do business with watches, do business with wines," she added.
After recalling that several of these strategic companies were privatized by previous PSOE and PP governments, the former minister claimed the "useful vote" for her party. In her opinion, "if there is one thing everyone watching us knows is that the PSOE will never dare to expropriate or nationalize."
Rufián, for his part, admitted that Pedro Sánchez's Executive has done "things well" thanks to "the pressure from left-wing parties," such as extraordinary taxes on energy and banking or the implementation of the minimum vital income. However, he warned that these policies lose effectiveness if "people continue to live in slums at palace prices."
"If I have nothing and you have everything, I mean, there is something that is not working," added the republican candidate, recalling the warning he already issued to the PSOE: "Housing is going to crush you."
Disagreement with Frente Amplio and pact with PSOE
On another note, when asked about the absence of an agreement between Podemos and Frente Amplio, Montero explained that the pact sealed with the PSOE to run on a joint list for the Senate was what "did not allow" —"fundamentally"— to close an alliance between both spaces.
"We have tried and in the end, well, there has been one thing that has not allowed us to come to an agreement, which is fundamentally the pact with the PSOE, with which I do not agree," criticized the former minister.
According to Montero, "in the end, problems are not solved" if in Spain "everything is PSOE or a left very similar to PSOE," and she again questioned Sumar for "its inability to get something" from the socialists during the legislature.
Rufián agreed with the diagnosis and stated: "I want the PSOE to do well, but I do not work for the PSOE." He explained that an understanding with Frente Amplio was also "attempted," but reiterated that "it was not about" having "everyone" end up "in the PSOE or very close to the PSOE" —referring to the space of Ada Colau and Emilio Delgado— since "there are a lot of very progressive people" who "do not want to vote for the PSOE."
In this line, he defended an Executive similar to the current one, led by the socialists but "controlled and subjected by formations like Podemos, Esquerra Republicana, Bildu, BNG, Compromis, Frente Amplio or Sumar" because "they have shown that it is possible."
Even so, the ERC candidate encouraged citizens to "vote for whoever they want" but to "vote left," emphasizing that "Frente Amplio has to do well," like "BNG," "Compromís," "Adelante Andalucía" or "Podemos." "We have to try to add," Rufián defended, "because if not, it doesn't work. And not everyone is going to vote for the PSOE."
Rufián: "Parties should not be churches"
Regarding whether the leadership of Esquerra Republicana rejected his proposal to run with other leftist forces, Rufián maintained —"much respect for whoever it may be"— that political organizations "should not be churches" and must adapt "to the moment."
Despite this, he assured that his position on the independence of Catalonia remains intact and that he would vote "yes" again in a hypothetical "self-determination referendum." "I am whatever I want to be, but I want everyone to do well, I don't think that is incompatible, really," he concluded.