Article 47 of the Constitution declares that all Spaniards have the right to enjoy dignified and adequate housing, and attributes to the public powers the obligation to promote the necessary conditions and establish the pertinent regulations to make this right effective. And Pedro Sánchez has used this constitutional mandate to announce that the Government is going to finance with 4,000 million euros the promotion of another 43,000 new homes for social rental and rental at affordable prices, below market prices.
The President of the Government thus insists on placing the policy of promoting public housing as a great bet at the gates of the municipal and regional elections on May 28, and as an element of political and electoral confrontation with the right. These 43,000 new public homes announced by the Chief Executive are in addition to the mobilization of another 50,000 from Sareb, which the Council of Ministers approved this past Tuesday. "In total, 93,000 public and affordable rental homes," Sánchez highlighted.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister has announced that these 43,000 new homes will be both newly built and refurbished. For this, a new ICO line endowed with 4,000 million euros from European recovery funds will be created to finance this action.
All the financed actions, as explained by Sánchez, must meet two conditions: energy efficiency and the destination of the action for social rent or at an affordable price, or the assignment in use for at least 50 years.
“We are going to comply with article 47 of the Constitution, and we are going to make access to housing a right and not a problem”, the head of the Executive has proclaimed. "There is nothing more constitutional than the new housing law and turning housing into the fifth pillar of the welfare state," Sánchez assured, given the rejection of his housing policy by the right.
Sánchez has started his appearance in Congress by highlighting the bonanza of the economic situation in Spain, with economic growth and job creation, with major reforms such as labor or the pension system in an environment of social peace, despite the uncertainties of the war in Ukraine, with a Holy Week that has registered "full hotels, overflowing terraces and beaches to the flag". In short, he has stood out, with "optimism in the streets." "The good progress of the economy is a success for the country, which we all congratulate ourselves on, despite the prophets of the Apocalypse," he highlighted, referring to the dark omens of the right. "Progressive politics manages the economy better than neoliberal recipes," he assured, without attributing "miracles" to himself, as the Popular Party did, and without resorting to "healers or televangelists."
The head of the Executive has made this announcement of financing for another 43,000 public homes during his appearance in the Congress of Deputies to report on the latest advice from the EU, explain the situation in Ukraine after more than a year since the Russian invasion, as well such as the relationship with Morocco as a result of the last high-level meeting between the governments of both countries.
In the appearance, the head of the Executive, who has taken the opportunity to reproach the "neoliberal" housing policy of the PP governments, which turned a right into "commodity", has explained the intention of his cabinet is to turn housing into "the fifth pillar of the welfare state", along with health and public education, the pension system and dependency, and has vindicated the measures already taken in this regard to alleviate the situation of citizens, although it has recognized that it is not enough .
Sánchez thanked the groups that are going to approve, foreseeably at the end of the month, the first democracy housing law, and has left a warning to the PP and the regional executives that Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party controls and that they could try to circumvent the new norm, as Isabel Díaz Ayuso from Madrid has announced. "The laws that this democratic Parliament approves are complied with, and the housing law will be complied with in all territories," Sánchez warned. “We must leave behind the neoliberal model of land liberalization and a regressive fiscal model”, she has settled.
