ERC and Comuns clash over the European housing mission in Barcelona

BarcelonaThe visit to Barcelona by a delegation of MEPs from the European Parliament's Special Committee on Housing began with controversy. hide the responsibility of the PSOE and the PP in the housing crisis we have", said the MEP of Comuns Jaume Asens, who appeared alongside the former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau and the leader of Barcelona en Común in the City Council, Janet Sanz. On the other hand, ERC has defended its presence on this committee and has accused Comuns of "not the people who renounce the mission for pure posturing", said the general secretary of ERC and leader of the Republicans in the Barcelona City Council, Elisenda Alamany.

The delegation, led by the president of the committee, the Italian socialist Irene Tinagli, has planned meetings with the mayors Albiol; the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, and the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque. They will also meet with tenant and landlord organizations. have implemented to address the problem.

Among the criticisms that Comuns Among the MEP delegation's concerns is the refusal to meet with representatives of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), as well as the decision to visit Badalona—governed by the PP—in the Prat accounts. The delegation was supposed to learn about the Baix Llobregat city's case firsthand, but the PSOE gave in to pressure from the PP and Vox and chose Badalona as the second city to visit.

Despite criticism, Asens, whose group is part of the European Parliament, is part of the MEP mission. Its representative is, in fact, ERC MEP Diana Riba. In this regard, Alamany emphasized that his group also wanted the committee to meet with organizations defending the right to housing, but added: "Leaving the chair empty or giving up is not the solution, because the housing agenda will not be carried out in accordance with what Parliament needs, but rather what the extreme right wants." One of the proposals the Republicans want to put on the table for this mission is to limit the purchases of European investment funds in cities like Barcelona.

Criticism of Collboni

Along with Asens, Ada Colau and Janet Sanz also appeared, who harshly attacked the socialists and, specifically, the mayor of Barcelona, ​​​​Jaume Collboni considered that the socialists are "cynical" about housing, since they are "slowing down or weakening" Colau, the delegation of MEPs is proof "that the PSC prefers to make a pact with the PP to make Barcelona's pioneering policies invisible"

The former mayor of the city also regretted that during the eight years that the commons governed Barcelona, ​​​​the PSC "only put spokes in the wheels" especially in the case of Collboni, since "after having blocked" many measures, "now he lives off the rents" and "the only housing policy he has" is to give away the keys to the apartments that, he said, his municipal executive put in place. Sanz also said that "Barcelona, ​​​​"a good example"

The Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, placed Barcelona as "a good example" that rental prices can be contained if these prices are intervened, applying state law: "We are containing the growth of rental prices and even, in some neighborhoods, we have lowered them to 8%, to 6.4%...". She said this during the reception at Barcelona City Hall for the MEPs of the mission.

She recalled that access to housing is not a problem exclusive to Spain, but to the entire European Union, as she believes is demonstrated by the involvement of the European Commission in this matter, and she defended the Government's policies in this area: "The pain of many, consolation of beasts It could not be applied in this situation, because the pain of many is the despair of all."

Rodríguez has highlighted the measures promoted to have a public housing stock affordable "in European standards", for which he has requested the participation of the social and private sectors, the regulation of the market through the housing law and the .