It is not possible to speak of a Housing law if it does not address the problem of illegal occupation, and in the norm approved on Thursday by Congress, there are no solutions to this scourge, in the opinion of the popular. This is the premise from which the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, departed yesterday on his fourth visit to Catalonia this April, considering that occupation has become a serious problem for homeowners.
From Tarragona, Feijóo gave figures that in his opinion leave no room for doubt about the dimension of the problem. According to the opposition leader, there are between 48 and 50 occupations of houses every day, and half of them in Catalonia. The PP has been characterized by its fight against the occupation throughout Spain, but especially in Catalonia. Xavier García Albiol, who was mayor of Badalona and aspires to recover the mayoralty, has always presented himself as a standard bearer against this illegal practice.
And Feijóo referred to her, who reproaches Sánchez for the fact that the Housing Law, approved on Thursday, protects the occupant, to the detriment of the owner of the occupied apartment. He also criticized that there is not a single measure, in the law, to persecute the "mafias that in many cases are behind these occupations."
After a visit to the vicinity of a squatted house in the Torreforta neighborhood of Tarragona together with the president of the PP of Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, and the candidate for mayor of Tarragona, María Mercè Martorell, the leader of the PP pointed out that the new law It makes "we are worse than yesterday", because it is an "interventionist, populist and not very serious" norm, which is simply "the price that Pedro Sánchez has had to pay to continue in Moncloa".
For this reason, the president of the popular demanded that the owners of occupied houses do not pay municipal taxes, mainly the IBI, while the owner of the house cannot enjoy it. At the same time, he demanded that the squatters who have illegally usurped the house not be allowed to register at that address, because that supposes, according to Feijóo, a “double injustice” for the owner, due to the rights that the squatter acquires with the census.
To these measures are added those that the president of the PP has already presented previously to achieve an express vacancy of the homes, within 24 hours, providing the security forces with the means to carry out the evictions.
Feijóo's criticism of the Housing Law is not limited to the occupation, but to "interventionist" aspects and the promises of new residential developments by Sánchez that are, he warned, simple "castles in the air."
The PP proposes a state pact and specific measures: 1,000 euros for the first expenses, guarantee 15% of the mortgage or put 10% of the public land to build rental homes, at an appraised price that is between 30% and a 40% cheaper than the market price. Likewise, Feijóo proposes measures to alleviate the rise in mortgages, such as creating a solidarity fund.
