In an attempt to carve out a gap between the PSOE and the PP and widen that central space with liberal proposals, Ciudadanos has today presented its alternative to the housing law of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, which consists of advancing a part of the pension to the young people so that they can use it as a down payment on the purchase of a flat.
The political spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Patricia Guasp, presented this Sunday in Madrid the program "Advance your pension, create your home", which includes the measures to promote access to housing for those under 35 years of age, since young Spaniards are among those who later become emancipated from the entire European Union and remain on average in the family home until they are almost 30 years old.
Given the escalation in rental prices, which, Ciudadanos recalls, is much higher than the increase in wages, the party has decided, in its new political strategy to focus on families and the middle classes, to propose an alternative to the housing recently agreed by the Government of PSOE and Unidas Podemos, which has the parliamentary support of EH Bildu and ERC.
This law, which is currently being processed in the Congress of Deputies, "is already born a failure", said Guasp, who has specified that the Ciudadanos proposal consists of young people being able to request an advance of up to 10% of their future pension to buy a house today.
In the document that includes his proposal, Ciudadanos explains that "the data corroborate a harsh reality: having a home seems impossible for those under 35 years of age", which is why their difficulties are multiplying to "prosper, start a family and continue to grow economically ".
"The social elevator has broken", assures Ciudadanos, who considers that the purchase of a home is a "fundamental leg" of that mechanism of prosperity that has also been stranded due to the breakdown of the "intergenerational pact", since young people, complaint, they have seen their salary increase by barely 3% while the pensions "that they are called to maintain" have risen by 40%.
To get out of this situation, Ciudadanos proposes that young people can have the advance of a part of their pension, which will be used to buy their first home. But there will be conditions. Thus, to receive up to 10% of the total amount of the pension, young people who request it will have to have contributed for at least five years.
The calculation of this percentage of retirement, perhaps the most controversial part of the Ciudadanos proposal, since it is difficult to know how the pension system will evolve, will be made based on the estimate of what will be charged during the twenty years after retirement age, taking into account life expectancy.
In addition, in the event that the young beneficiaries decide in the future to sell the home acquired thanks to this aid, they must return it at the time of the transaction.
Ciudadanos believes that this proposal is "viable, ambitious and courageous" and that it could allow many young people who "now cannot even consider buying a home, take the first step to build a home and continue to prosper."
In this sense, the liberal party takes the opportunity to question the housing policies of both the PSOE and the PP during the "decades of bipartisanship" in which they have governed Spain, in which, according to Ciudadanos, the purchase of a home has become in "a luxury", a situation that is "leading to the extinction of the middle classes".
"I don't want a mortgaged future like the one young people have now, I want a Spain that looks to the future with measures that work, non-interventionists," Guasp assured at the event, an "eighties party" held in Sanchinarro, in the district of Hortaleza, the neighborhood where Ciudadanos obtained its best results in the last Madrid regional competitions.
For her part, the Ciudadanos candidate for mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís, has accused the Prime Minister of "lying" with the housing law, because, in her opinion, measures such as capping rent increases will end finally increasing prices, as has happened, in his opinion, in other European capitals.
"They are sellers of hair growth, liars who have no scruples about deceiving", exclaimed Villacís, who has vindicated the housing policies of Ciudadanos in the municipal government of Madrid during the rally, in which, under the motto "For the yours", the song Don't stop believin' (don't stop believing), released by Journey in 1981, has been heard, among other hits of the time.
