The Deputy Secretary of Economy and Sustainable Development of the Partido Popular, Alberto Nadal, has called into question this Monday in Logroño the “solidity” of the objectives of the general strike convened for next Wednesday, 11 November, and has reiterated that “the one you have to hold to account” for compliance with those goals is “the one who has been managing it all these years, the current Government”.
During his stay in the Riojan capital, in which he has taken the opportunity to visit a local company and hold a meeting with representatives of business associations and of the professional colleges of La Rioja, Nadal reminded the media that “traditionally a general strike is called by the unions of any country in order to change the economic policy of the Government.”
In this context, he pointed out that “we are called to the polls on 29 November, therefore it seems like a contradiction, because the Spanish people are already going to choose the economic policy that they want.” “Therefore—he said—the call does not seem to have solidity from the point of view of what the objectives they are pursuing are.”
He added that “it is necessary to remember that, if the problem for having called the strike is housing, then the one you have to demand it from is the one that has had responsibility for housing policies, for the laws on administrative procedure, and for the instruments to intervene in the rental market, which has been the current Government and the current Parliament for the result of its housing policies.”
As he has emphasized, these policies have generated “a shortage” of supply and “with prices that have risen in stratospheric fashion for the young population they are practically unattainable.” He stressed that “eight years governing the Partido Socialista and eight years in which the housing problem has gone from being a marginal problem to being at number one among the Spaniards’ concerns.”
For Nadal, all of this “is the consequence of a policy whose basic principle has been not to create the conditions for there to be land on which it is possible to build; not to create the conditions for there to be a construction sector—which has been spoken about with contempt—that is able to build those homes; or to see the liberalization of land as speculation.”
The popular leader has assured that the "final result of all this is that we are missing more than 700,000 homes and that an annual shortfall of about 100,000 per year is created". "That is why -he has emphasized- our proposal is to build one million homes per year. Because if there are no more homes, we cannot solve the problem. If there is more demand than the existing supply, the only result is that the price goes up and up and up more and more".
In this line, he has indicated that "in the short term, the homes we have available are empty homes and that is where the Government has done everything possible to scare landlords; if occupancy is allowed, if subletting is allowed, if prices are continuously intervened in, if obstacles are put in the way of recovering the home when rent is not paid, the final result is that owners remove their homes from the rental market".
Nadal has put the "between 30 and 40 percent" fall in rental supply in certain areas and has argued that "what we need is a policy in which there are more homes available, both for purchase and for rent, and this will make prices more reasonable", generating the conditions to raise that million homes, eliminating bureaucratic obstacles and strengthening the construction sector.
He has emphasized that this strategy must pay "special attention to two segments of the population that need more", starting "with young people, because they are starting their working lives, they have less stable contracts, they earn less money, and therefore it is more difficult for them to demonstrate solvency to both the landlord and the financial institution".
At this point, the PP proposes "reducing part of what they have to contribute at the beginning, especially for the purchase of a home, because a young person who wants to buy a home needs to put almost 30% of the home’s value down from the start, because banks no longer finance more than 80% after the financial crisis and then between taxes, notary, registration and other expenses, another 10% is added on".
"Our proposal -he has specified- is, in that 10%, that most of it are taxes, to reduce taxes for young people by more than 60% and the 40% of the remaining amount, to refinance it. And to create tax incentives, savings incentives, and guarantees for the remaining 20%. This will allow young people, along with, but first there must be homes, because you cannot buy a home that does not exist".
The second group he has referred to is "the population with the most modest incomes that needs public support, already much more direct than for that there exists public protected housing". He has not specified what part of the one million homes proposed by the Populars would be allocated to VPO, because, in his view, "what matters is that there is much more VPO and free-market housing".
He has insisted that "we have to liberalize land and create the instruments so that all the developers who want to invest in Spanish land also come to invest. So that we get an idea, given the average price of housing in Spain and given that we need a million homes, we will probably need between 150 and 300 million in investment in housing over the next four years in order to be able to solve the problem".
Pensions and stability of the system
On pensions, Alberto Nadal has said that "if I were a pensioner, what I would really be worried about is that President Pedro Sánchez continues in La Moncloa, because what can maintain and guarantee our public pensions system is an appropriate economic policy, that makes the economy grow in a sustained way".
He has argued that "every time the Partido Popular has been in government, not only have pensions always grown every year and been paid on time, but the system has also come out strengthened compared to what it had initially".
As he summed it up, "while the Partido Popular is in government, pensioners have to be clear on, one, that the public pension system will be viable; two, that pensions will be paid on time; and three, that they will be revalued with the CPI. What’s more, only if the Partido Popular governs can these things be guaranteed", he concluded.