The layout of the office of the Department of Territory and aspires to manage the department “with a feminine gaze”. His predecessor lasted eight months and the previous one, 16. A Esther Capella (La Seu d’Urgell, 1963), with a long political career, has been asked to living place is your main concern and you seem comfortable with the assignment.
Carry three weeks in charge of the Department of TerritoryWhat is your first impression?
The ‘president’ appreciates that he has worked in housing and now is a key moment. We have to guarantee the right to housing for everyone. It’s a challenge. This is the most social department of all, not only from an investment point of view but also because we plan the country and provide mobility for people, wherever they live.
You have a mandate of at most a year and a half, what do you propose?
Housing is a fundamental right because it is the gateway to all other rights. We want to start up all the machinery once the Spanish housing law has entered into force. We have done all the paperwork and we believe that it can be validated before the Cortes are constituted.
Will it give time?
According to our calendar yes. We cannot live waiting for the new government, we have to be able to guarantee this right from the outset: housing emergency, avoid evictions. We have to prevent people from being kicked out of their home.
With what measures?
All that the new law allows us. For example, starting this Monday we will deploy a tool that is the possibility of intermediation. Large holders are required to go through mediation before filing a lawsuit to evict a person. We will activate the 87 Ofideute offices to guarantee that no one has to leave their home and look for mechanisms to avoid eviction.
Hasn’t happened until now?
In Catalonia, the large holders are obliged to reach an agreement because there is social rent. The law allows us this option and we apply it. It requires large holders to go through these offices first.
What challenges are set?
Our goal is zero eviction. This is the emergency mechanism but it is the least we want to use. We must expand the volume of the public housing stock, which we do not have enough at an affordable price because for years it has ended up on the free market. Catalonia is at 1.9% of public rental park while in Europe it is around 10%. Our objective is to reach that average, although in one term it is not possible, of course.
What deadlines do you work with?
In 2026 we want 10,000 flats and we want Incasòl to have the strength to build, surface land to make it buildable, test and retract and via Sareb. We have forced them to the table and we want to buy entire buildings and reduce the waiting list of people waiting for affordable rental housing.
She wants to be the ‘councilor’ of the house.
It is my priority. I want to remove housing from the logic of the market. The Catalan housing law was better than the one that the Government has now approved because from the beginning it made a list with the municipalities that were a tense area and with that speculation was avoided. In addition, the new government rule leaves a loophole to circumvent it.
As?
With seasonal rental contracts they want to avoid limiting prices. From the Government we will also regulate these contracts to prevent them from being a loophole. And we will make another rule for houses for tourist use. Speculating is not a right but having a place to live is.
Do you have a deadline for them to be ready?
No, but the teams are already working on both.
The Chamber of Property has announced resource to the denomination of stressed zone of Barcelona.
They have never agreed with Catalan law, nor with Spanish law. Territori watches over the general interest and they do it for their own interests.
What did your predecessor, the ‘councillor’, not do? Juli Fernandezfor cease in eight months? Was it for the B-40?
Don’t know. For the first time ERC took over Territori and the ‘councillor’ Fernàndez put the direct in many things. I think he wanted to do other things and that is why he is still a deputy and is in charge of the parliamentary group. When he appoints me, the ‘president’ Pere Aragonès puts the accent on housing, because it is an issue that has concerned me and concerned me for years.
I wanted to ask you about the agreements with the PSC to approve the budgets. There are several infrastructure issues that have not been completed.
They are agreements that must be negotiated and agreed upon.
The B-40 is one of them.
The Ronda Nord protocol is signed and also that of the management parcels with more than 900 million euros to carry out a series of important works for the country. We have been waiting for a report.
Will they comply with the agreement?
The devil is in the details. We will comply, the agreements are fulfilled. The ‘president’ has made a commitment and we will do it. We will comply but they must also do so from the other party. If we put ourselves on the scale someone will be scalded but I don’t want to do it.
Can it be delayed with the elections?
I want to think that there are no problems due to electoral proximity, on the part of the Generalitat there are none. In addition, there are many ways to sign, for example electronically. It is a commitment, a defined and written political agreement. We can lengthen it like gum, but it’s done [la firma se produjo el viernes, de forma telemática]
The project of hard rock He was also on the list of agreements with the PSC.
For our part, the reports from Acció Climàtica and Empresa are missing. We are waiting for them, the procedure must be followed, but the one who approves is not the ‘councilor’ but the Town Planning Commission.
And as for the expansion of the capacity of El Prat airport? Barcelona Global has presented a new proposal.
I haven’t seen it yet but the agreement with the PSC was for the improvement of the airport. I put the accent on governance, that it be an international hub but that protected areas be preserved.
What is your opinion?
I will not opt for telling you if I like this project or not, we must continue the debate, the Government will have its own opinion. Aena has its interests but the Government must think about the airport model of Catalonia. I’m hearing “airport expansion & rdquor; and I think that’s not the word. It is a dirty word that creates a frame of mind. We must think about governance, internationalization and respecting what must be respected.
When will the technical table be created?
We have enough time, you are talking to a lot of people. Everyone lawfully puts their proposal on the table because they look after their interests, but the Government must look after the general interest, which is the priority.
What is there to do with Rodalies?
We continue with major incidents eight out of ten days. I could relativize it but I don’t want to. In 2022 there were 18,000 affected trains. This affects stability, people’s lives, their health, the climate emergency. We have to get down to work, make a political agreement in which there is a transfer of Rodalies to the Generalitat. We want them to work like the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC).
The FGC network is smaller.
Our requirement is that Rodalies be punctual, reliable, accessible, sustainable. We want it all: tracks, trains, whatever it takes. Do not worry, we are not afraid of challenges: transfer it to us with the relevant economic transfer, we will show it to you. The closer a competition is, the better it lends itself.
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