"We do not need to do a great act to say that we want to manage Urbanism." With this reflection, a person in charge of Compromís in Valencia city explained the curious press conference that the coalition held this Monday to advance that housing will be the great priority of the next legislature.
A call that seemed mounted to send a message to its government partners and to respond to the act that the PSPV organized to announce who would be its candidate to occupy the Department of Festival Culture, now in the hands of Compromís. Quite an affront that has now been answered.
In the Valencian formation they believe that it does not make much sense for Housing and Urbanism to go separately and they seem willing to demand, in an upcoming negotiation -in case the left wins- these powers.
In yesterday's press conference, no names were given, it was not even a direct allusion, but, in addition to presenting unspecified housing proposals, several messages were left for the PSPV, which manages both the tourist apartments and the Aumsa company.
Along these lines, after acknowledging that the housing problem was a growing problem that had not been solved, the mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, explained that, although things had been done, "much remains to be done." The first mayor called for tightening control of tourist apartments, strengthening the role of the municipal public housing company Aumsa and "even touching the General Plan (of Urban Planning) in some aspects." All of this is a matter of the Urban Planning area managed by the socialist deputy mayor Sandra Gómez.
And it is that the press conference did not materialize, as Ribó himself admitted, the proposals beyond giving brushstrokes of where the coalition understands that it is necessary to go. Without going into details, the mayor spoke of establishing in Valencia the measure adopted by the Canadian government to prohibit non-resident foreigners from buying housing to control prices and was in favor of ceding surface rights to cooperatives and promoting the public-private collaboration to build homes and allocate them to affordable rent.
In the press conference, Compromís union member and future councilor Papi Robles, who did highlight the work of Podemos at the head of the Housing Ministry, and Compromís' candidate for the Presidency of the Generalitat, Joan Baldoví, will also participate.
The current deputy in Congress encouraged the Government of Pedro Sánchez to be "brave" to really limit the price of rentals. Otherwise, Baldoví demanded that these powers be transferred to the autonomous communities and the municipalities.
