The Minister of Culture and number 2 of Frente Amplio for Barcelona, Ernest Urtasun, has acknowledged that the general strike called for this 11 November has a “political” character and revolves around a major “social problem” such as housing. He has emphasized that it will be citizens who decide which formation is “facing” this crisis and which “puts sticks in the spokes” to prevent it from being channeled, alluding to PP, Vox and Junts.
Urtasun has insisted that the strike call seeks to exert pressure so that institutions and parties “are up to the task,” and he has claimed that Frente Amplio has been very “insistent” in the Council of Ministers, demanding measures such as the extension of rent freezes or the regulation of fraud in contracts for seasonal rooms, included in the decrees that the Government plans to submit to the Permanent Deputation of the Congress.
In statements to “RNE,” collected by Europa Press, he has criticized PP and PSOE for having allowed for the last thirty years “for housing to be regulated by the market” and he has advocated for reversing that approach now, “investing in public housing and regulating,” against the right’s bet on focusing on construction. “You have to build, but you have to build affordable housing, which is something different,” he stressed.
Defense of the vote of those naturalized under the ‘grandchildren’s law’
Asked about the Supreme Court’s decision not to suspend voting by the children of those naturalized under the ‘grandchildren’s law,’ the Frente Amplio candidate has welcomed that the ruling amounts to a “lesser limitation” on the right to suffrage. He has recalled that it is a rule approved by Parliament that recognized rights for “people who had to leave Spain.” “If someone thinks those people don’t have the right to vote, let them say so,” he underscored.
The minister has emphasized that in Spain “nationality is linked to voting” and he has admitted that taking away that right from those naturalized under the ‘grandchildren’s law’ would create a “monumental mess,” since when at the Consulate “a national with his passport saying that he is a Spanish national and asks to vote, they can’t deny his right, because it is a right that he has recognized constitutionally.”
For this reason, it has demanded of the right that it stop "questioning the electoral system," which it has described as "absolutely clean," and that it "stop stealing the rights of citizens who have nationality and who have the right to vote." "What the Partido Popular has done with this story seems like a democratic scandal," it has concluded.
Criticism of Abascal’s appearance on Broncano’s show
As for the interview with Vox leader Santiago Abascal on TVE’s program "La Revuelta," the minister described this meeting as a "serious moment" because, in his view, the right was seen "in all its splendor."
According to Urtasun, Abascal managed to "cancel" "the humor" of the TVE space by going "to his own audience" to David Broncano’s format. From there, he has denounced "extreme-right censorship," citing the case of Castilla y León, where Vox governs with the PP and where, he has denounced, support for cinema has been made subject "to ideological criteria."