Feijóo commissions Albiol to lead the anti-squatting law in the State: "On 29-N we have to choose between Colau and him"

BarcelonaAware that to reach the Moncloa he needs to achieve a good result in Catalonia, where 48 of the 350 seats at stake are distributed, the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has returned to Barcelona in what is his third visit in just one month. In the first pre-campaign event, the Popular Party's presidential hopeful surrounded himself with the party's top brass in Catalonia to try to stop the rise of Vox.

The latest CEO survey, which was made public this week, did not give them the results they are looking for. The PP would be limited to maintaining the six deputies it obtained in 2023 and, at most, could win one more, while Santiago Abascal's party would skyrocket and go from the two it has now to five or six. The appointment of the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, a bulwark against irregular immigration, as a candidate, aims to reverse this trend.

And Feijóo has taken advantage of his landing in Catalonia to task Albiol with leading the anti-squatting law in the State and being its rapporteur in Congress. He defended this at the Popular Party's pre-campaign event in Barcelona, at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, before hundreds of conservative militants and supporters. "You will draft it and we will approve it, zero tolerance for squatters, whom we will evict in 48 hours, maximum protection for the honest citizen," said Feijóo. "Colau or Albiol: this is the country we are gambling on November 29th," he warned the Catalan attendees.

Under the slogan "At last," in reference to the long-awaited electoral call, Feijóo called for making the change possible by positioning himself as the useful vote and claimed that no center-right vote in Catalonia "can serve to prolong the life" of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in an allusion to Junts. Thus, he recalled that in the last elections they were close to achieving a majority – with the support of Vox and other right-wing parties – and that it was not possible by a small margin. "We were four seats short of governing, and two were in Catalonia; by a few hundred votes (363) we did not achieve a seat in Girona, and neither in Lleida," although in that district they were short by more than 3,500.

Feijóo has taken advantage of the scandals besetting the PSOE to demand change. "Pensions, yes, of course. Jewels in safes, no. Public healthcare, yes. Sausages, no. Public education, yes. Bribes, no. Housing, yes. Apartments for a minister's lovers, no," he noted. In this sense, he also attacked the dismissal of the PSOE spokesperson, Montse Mínguez: "They must see it very badly to make the spokesperson resign, who is one of the few who was not under investigation, despite being a hypocrite".

Thus, he described Sánchez as "the master of lies" and as having "a concrete face, the kind used to build the housing he hasn't built". In a speech without concessions, the presidential candidate accused the PSOE of deceiving the citizenry. "They cover up the lies about Morocco with housing and then they cover up the lies about housing with pensions, they cover up lies with more lies [...] Decency yes, Sánchez no," he concluded.

Albiol: "I didn't come to warm a chair"

Xavier García Albiol, the head of the list for the Popular Party, has thanked Feijóo for the trust and said that he hopes to "be up to the task" in a nod to the announcement of his appointment, which highlighted that he was a high-profile signing. The statutes of the PP declare it incompatible to be the mayor of a city of more than 20,000 inhabitants while also being a deputy in Congress, but they include an exception in the event that the national executive of the PP authorizes it for reasons of general interest, as has been the case. "I am the mayor of the fourth largest city in Catalonia and I govern with an absolute majority, and if I am taking this step, it is to give a voice to the real problems of the citizens of Catalonia, not to warm a seat, because the problems of the people of Badalona are the same as in the rest of Catalonia," he said.

In a speech in which he also used Catalan, Albiol asked to be able to "live in tranquility," which is the project they defend, according to him. "President, I know that you need the trust of Catalonia to govern and we will work so that they get to know you and do not regret placing their trust in you, because Catalans and Galicians are not so different," he said to the laughter of the audience. "You have achieved one majority after another and that demonstrates the trust you have built, and now it is necessary to recover the dignity that this country deserves," he concluded.

The president of the PP in Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, has congratulated Feijóo for appointing Albiol as a candidate, who was cheered with shouts of "mayor, mayor". "Albiol is the best candidate because he does not have to promise anything, because he does what he says against squatting and for security". "Political change in Spain is especially necessary in Catalonia and will be positive for Catalonia because it will facilitate access to housing, lower the tax burden and bring regulated immigration", he remarked. Fernández has accused Sánchez of "dividing society, causing a very deep wound" and has urged the party faithful to convince the undecided to make the change possible.