If Pedro Sánchez wants to confront, he will have confrontation. Alberto Núñez Feijóo will not attend undeterred to what he considers "demagogic and populist measures", wanting to make the problems of housing, which mainly affect young people, fall back on the actions of the previous governments of the PP, when Spain has been governed for the last five years by the general secretary of the PSOE.
Just yesterday the president of the PP presented the first measures of his housing plan, aimed mainly at young people with medium and low incomes. This is an emancipation aid of 1,000 euros to cover the rental costs and a guarantee to pay the deposits. In the case of the purchase of a flat, Feijóo offers a guarantee of 15% of the value of the property so that, along with the mortgage, young people can own their home.
In any case, Feijóo believes that the price of housing will only go down if more flats are built, and that is why its land acquisitions to build homes and sell them for 50 years for rent, with assessed prices that are a 40 % lower than the market price. The PP leader also insists on legislating against occupation, so that eviction is guaranteed within 24 hours; toughen penalties for employment; providing courts and security forces with more resources to fight against occupation, and aid to owners to repair their homes.
All these measures have a main premise, the need, in the words of Feijóo, to "build, elaborate and approve the first housing State pact", where there are councils, autonomous communities and central administration.
So, the popular people propose a State pact that addresses housing problems in their entirety, including "legal security for small investors, legal security for tenants and landlords".
Weapons with which he wants to respond to the "ghosts of the electoral period", to make it clear that he, as president of the PP, will not "do demagoguery with such a complex issue", nor will he give "easy solutions to complex problems", "populist measures which only create more problems”, or “interventionist measures that result in higher prices”.
But Feijóo does not forget that there is an election campaign, and if the central government spends half the time criticizing the PP for its previous housing policies, he will not remain silent, and will respond in kind. He criticizes the initiatives announced, "40 days before the elections", which in his opinion are "erratic, inefficient and insufficient measures".
Regarding the promised 50,000 homes of the Sareb that Sánchez announced on Sunday that will be put on the market, Feijóo emphasizes that "either they are occupied, or there are only lots, or they are in places where there is no tension", and that is why he thinks they won't solve anything. The leader of the PP also tried to demolish the great promise that 20% of housing will be public, with the argument that today this figure is 3%. His syllogism is that currently 100,000 homes are built per year, and if only public housing were built, it would take 30 years, that is, until 2053, to get the public housing stock to 20%
