At Xavier García Albiol's first rally as a PP candidate for the province of Barcelona, the president of his organization and candidate for the presidency of the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has already given him duties for after the elections on November 29. Feijóo, from the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, has asked the mayor of Badalona to “lead” an anti-occupation law in Congress after the elections, an issue with which his Catalan candidate has always been very belligerent and involved in his municipality.
“You will be the speaker of the law, we are going to approve it with you,” stated Feijóo, who has made reference to a matter that he knows helps him compete with other groups that champion that discourse, such as the case of Junts and Vox. In the last legislature, these two parties, like the PP, registered various initiatives to toughen the Penal Code and be able to expel the squatters more quickly, but they were not able to crystallize them into a law.
“It is not normal that your house is occupied and you have to wait to get it back and it is not normal that Catalonia leads the numbers of occupations and crime” in Spain, the popular candidate later pointed out, who has promised “zero tolerance” with occupations, crime and multiple recidivism. "Let the squatters, the bosses, the criminals, the corrupt and the Sánchez clan be careful, the PP is coming. Let them be careful, that is what honest people want, everything will be known, everything will have consequences and everything will be cleaned up," the popular leader later stated, alluding to the left's strategy to mobilize its electorate.
Albiol, in his speech, in which he combined Catalan and Spanish, has also alluded to this issue, as has the president of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández, who was the first to speak and said that his candidate does not have to promise anything on these matters related to security because as mayor he has already taken action on the matter.
Likewise, Feijóo has asked to choose "between the Ada Colau model in Barcelona or the Albiol model in Badalona" and has highlighted the importance for the PP of achieving a good result in Catalonia on 29-N. In 2023, the Popular Party narrowly lost two seats that they now aspire to recover from the hand of Albiol, a transversal man who identifies little with the party and who is capable of fishing in other people's fishing grounds, as demonstrated by his results in Badalona. "Three years ago we lost a seat in Lleida and another in Girona by a few hundred votes. We were missing four seats to govern and two were here [in Catalonia]," Feijóo said in this regard.
The leader of the PP has referred again this Sunday to the resignation of what was going to be the PSC candidate for Lleida, Montse Mínguez. “They have made their spokesperson resign for being a hypocrite, as if that were a problem for Sánchez,” he argued. “How bad they have to see it for someone who was not charged to resign,” he concluded.
In turn, Albiol has stressed that if he goes to Madrid "it is not to warm a chair or to make corridors" and has committed to "giving voice to the real problems that the residents of Barcelona and Catalonia have." "I am a person who perfectly knows the reality and the needs," he added. Furthermore, he has made it clear that in May he will repeat as a candidate in his city: “I will continue in Badalona and we will win the elections again.”
The leader of the popular Catalans has also stressed that the “political change in Spain is very necessary and will be positive” in Catalonia. "It will facilitate access to housing, because the Sánchez-Colau model is where it has caused the most damage; it will lower the tax pressure in Catalonia; there will be legal and orderly immigration; quality education; and water and energy for all," the Parliament member also predicted.
