The interests of the far right and big business often go hand in hand. Lowering taxes, raising corporate profits, privatizing pensions, and ultimately shrinking the state are part of their DNA. But sometimes these interests clash, especially when protectionist measures are involved. It is within this context that the latest major strategy of the far right internationally must be understood: making housing affordable, one of the population's main problems. US President Donald Trump is paving the way with interventionist measures that declare war on big investors. The most striking: the announced ban on the purchase of single-family homes to large corporations as a method to achieve lower rental prices. In Spain, Vox is a star pupil, although until now, collusion with groups that specialize in evicting tenants has been the defining characteristic of the Spanish far right. Now, on a new path to capture the working-class vote, in Catalonia and throughout the StateVox joins this international trend, also followed by other parties within the Patriots for Europe coalition, which includes prominent far-right figures such as France's Marine Le Pen, Hungary's Viktor Orbán, and Italy's Matteo Salvini. Far from the ultraliberalism advocated by Argentine President Javier Milei, this conglomerate has opted for a combination of liberal and interventionist ideas, seasoned with rhetoric against international investment funds, a tactic also employed by the populist left. In a conversation with ARA, Carlos Hernández Quero, Vox's strategist and deputy spokesperson in Congress, points out that not many governments within his political family have yet chosen to impose such clear limits on investment funds. And he justifies this approach. Trumpian"It's a matter of understanding the purpose of the policies. Having property ownership as widely distributed as possible is best," he states. His premise is that "living in a home you own" is the most desirable and that to achieve this, "we must combat unfair competition from large funds or foreign capital." In other words, they advocate for market intervention, but at the same time, "promoting construction and opting for low taxes." A "less dogmatic" approach than that of the United States, with the objective of "discouraging purchases by international players," which "heats up the market and drives up prices." "People live in houses, not corporations," Trump said to justify the announcements of recent weeks.

Around twenty residents of six apartment blocks in Barcelona have jointly protested their owner, the investment fund Vandor, because it has decided to stop renewing their contracts in order to convert their apartments, where some residents have lived for decades, into room rentals. "Vandor has bought fourteen properties with a total of two hundred apartments for purely speculative purposes and is evicting the tenants," explained the residents of these blocks, along with the Renters' Union, at a press conference this Friday outside one of the affected properties, located at 62 Avenir Street in Barcelona.

The story of Juanjo Hernández is the story of the real estate crisis. This 56-year-old resident of Ciudad Meridiana—the poorest neighborhood in Barcelona—has experienced every chapter of the housing drama firsthand: the rising prices of the bubble, buying an apartment at the worst possible time, the outbreak of the housing crisis in 2008, the skyrocketing Euribor that made vulture funds more expensive, and now, the rental crisis. And it's no coincidence, nor is it bad luck. Since the real estate crisis of 2008, this peripheral neighborhood of Barcelona is called by the nickname of Villa Deshaucio.