“We are going to win the fight for housing with the strength of the people!” Pedro Sánchez cried, this Saturday at the start of the socialist electoral pre-campaign of 29-N in the Sevillian town of Dos Hermanas. If the immigration crisis in Ceuta and the corruption scandals that plague the PSOE are the main arguments of Alberto Núñez Feijóo's campaign, the President of the Government has focused his electoral speech on the memory of Maricarmen Abascal – the elderly woman who died last Wednesday in a hospital after being evicted from her home in Madrid.
The leader of the PSOE began by conveying, first of all, “all my love and respect for Maricarmen,” and also to all the people who “are suffering from the abuses, threats and speculation of vulture funds.” He recalled that, before his death, he promoted the decree law with the anti-eviction moratorium that overthrew the PP, Vox and Junts, which the Council of Ministers approved again last Tuesday and which "is in force today", awaiting its validation in the permanent deputation of Congress after the call of the early elections on 29-N.
“This is my commitment: the housing policy has no expiration date,” he assured. And he has stated that "the next Parliament, with a large progressive majority, and a progressive Government, will reinforce and maintain this royal housing law decree that protects small owners and also tenants against speculation." If he manages to revalidate the position of chief executive.
"Maricarmen and all those who are mobilizing for the cause of fair housing opened the way. And it is up to us to go as far as the people on the street want and as the strength of the people's vote allows us," Sánchez assured. “That's what these elections are about,” he warned. “The strength of the people” is, precisely, the motto with which the PSOE has launched its pre-election campaign.
The President of the Government has warned that “the great social achievements” always start with citizen mobilization and are met with opposition from the right. But they culminate in “an overflow of society that supports progressive majorities that translate these great social achievements into laws.” This has been the case, as he has argued, with the demands of retirees to revalue their pensions, of women to promote gender equality, of workers to increase their salaries or of a social majority to denounce the “genocide” in Gaza.
Now, he assured, is the time to promote the right to decent housing, because, as he pointed out, each generation has its cause to fight for. “Today the social cause is named after an 87-year-old woman who died hopelessly,” said Sánchez, in reference to Maricarmen and her demand that “what I have suffered no one else suffers.” "We will honor that example of life. We are going to win the fight for housing with the strength of the people, with a large and progressive majority in Parliament and the Government, to put into law what the people feel and what they want in relation to housing policy," the president stressed.
Sánchez has thus started the 29-N electoral pre-campaign this Saturday in one of his favorite squares, Dos Hermanas, the Sevillian town where he also began the race in 2017 to regain the leadership of the PSOE, which he achieved after winning the primaries over Susana Díaz, and where he also began the race in 2023 to revalidate the position of president of the Government, which he achieved despite the fact that Alberto Núñez Feijóo won those general elections. In both cases, against all odds.
“This is where it all started,” recalled today the mayor of Dos Hermanas, and organizational secretary of the PSOE of Andalusia, Paco Rodríguez, before the more than 5,000 supporters who attended the rally, according to the organization. The head of the Executive has thus launched his new electoral race towards 29-N, raising the memory of Maricarmen. And, again, with all the odds against it. However, the leader of the Andalusian socialists, María Jesús Montero, has defined it as an “exciting journey to victory.” Although he has acknowledged, at least, that “the slope is still steep.”
