The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, revealed this Sunday why he has proposed the mayor of Badalona, the media-savvy Xavier Garcia Albiol, as head of the party's list for the Congress for Barcelona: he needs his electoral pull to gain more support among Catalan voters and thus obtain a "large majority" that will allow him to govern after 29-N. "We need a large majority and I need Catalonia to promote that majority to produce change. Four years ago we were missing four seats and two were here. Are we going to take the risk? No, that is why Xavi has taken this step forward, because we have to go all out," he said at a pre-campaign event, before a thousand supporters, at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, in Barcelona.
Presented with the song Hall of Fame, Feijóo thanked Albiol for accepting the challenge and defined him as “the pedestrian politician of Catalonia”, due to his closeness to the residents and the problems of the city: “He knows every neighborhood, the shops, the squares...”, praised the candidate for the presidency of the government, who needs to snatch votes left and right, that is, both from Vox and the PSC (the socialists snatched two from him, precisely key deputies, in Lleida and Girona, in 2023). With a very harsh speech on immigration or security, Albiol has already shown, in Badalona, that he is a dam against the extreme right: he governs with an absolute majority of 18 councilors out of 27 in a city in which Vox lacks representation.
For Albiol, the big issues that should structure the PP campaign in the general elections are the fight against “conflictive” irregular immigration, the fight against multiple recidivism and the promotion of legislative changes to stop the illegal occupation of homes. Albiol, who has created the first specific department in the Badalona City Council to fight against this phenomenon, has received a mission from Feijóo: "I am instructing you that, starting November 29, you lead the anti-occupation law in Spain; you are going to be the rapporteur of the law and we are going to approve it with you," he said. The popular leader has opted for “zero tolerance” towards occupations and has stressed that the squatters must “be out within 48 hours no matter what”, in line with the ideas defended by Albiol on this matter.
“I have come to Catalonia to be the President of the Government,” proclaimed Feijóo, who has denounced the poor functioning of services in the community and the excessive fiscal pressure that, in his opinion, its citizens suffer. “It is not normal that you pay more taxes than anyone else and the AVE and Rodalies and the metro work increasingly worse,” he said, referring to the poor state of the railway network. Although without going into too many details, he has also referred to those problems that, for Albiol, must be a priority: "It is not normal for your house to be occupied and you have to wait to get it back, nor for Catalonia to top the lists of occupation and crime."
And that's it, because the rest of the time has been dedicated to Feijóo, as usual, attacking the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, whom this Sunday he called a “master of lies.” "It has a concrete face. It is what is used to build housing, but what do you know if you haven't built any in eight years," he joked. Without going into specific proposals either, Feijóo has tried to leave the controversy over pensions behind. "Pensions, yes, of course; jewelry in safes, no; public health, yes, jokes, no; public education, yes, bites, no; decency yes, Sánchez no."
