Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Spain’s govt slams far-right leader who said PM will be ‘strung up by his feet’

The Spanish government lashed out at the leader of the far-right Vox party Santiago Abascal on Monday over comments he made suggesting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez would meet a dictator's end and be "strung up by his feet".

Published: 11 December 2023 17:42 CET
Spain's govt slams far-right leader who said PM will be 'strung up by his feet'
Abascal made the remarks while visiting Buenos Aires to attend the swearing-in of Javier Milei as Argentina's new ultra-libertarian president. (Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

The reaction came after Vox leader Santiago Abascal said there would come a time when “the Spanish people would want to string up (Sánchez) by the feet”.

“These type of rhetoric.. is an attempt to turn.. our country into a place where hate speech and confrontation reigns,” Sánchez told reporters on presenting his latest book.

Earlier, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares expressed his “total rejection” of Abascal’s comments which “constitute hate speech that seeks to polarise and incite violence” ahead of talks with his counterparts in Brussels.

That type of language “hasn’t been heard in Spain for many decades, since times that were very dark,” he said, referring to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975).

The minister also urged the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) to renounce its tie-up with the far-right under which the two parties jointly run five of Spain’s 17 regional governments and several local municipalities.

“You shouldn’t be doing anything with a leader like that,” Albares said.

Abascal made the remarks in an interview with the Argentine daily Clarín this weekend while visiting Buenos Aires to attend the swearing-in of Javier Milei as Argentina’s new ultra-libertarian president.

After flaunting his links to the new president, the Vox leader laid into Sánchez, notably for his approval of a controversial amnesty deal for Catalan separatists in order to stay in power.

Economy Minister Nadia Calviño denounced his remarks as “dangerous”.

“I think we have to try and calm this kind of rhetoric as soon as possible,” she told Onda Cero radio.

PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo also condemned Abascal’s remarks, saying they were “regrettable” and would only “divide Spain” in comments on Telecinco television.

Member comments

  1. ¿Entonces este es el hombre con el que Feijoo quiere colaborar? Qué vergüenza que fingiera una cuestión de “democracia”. Feijóo debe condenar a Abascal y afirmar que el PP nunca colaborará con Vox para gobernar. ¡Y no conviertan a los activistas separatistas en mártires mediante una opresión continua!

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

PROPERTY

Spain’s plan to limit temporary accommodation rejected

Spain's left-wing government had planned to tighten its grip on temporary accommodation rentals as a potential means of making more long-term rentals available, but the country's right-wing parties on Tuesday rejected the proposal in parliament.

Published: 18 September 2024 11:53 CEST
Spain's plan to limit temporary accommodation rejected

If passed, the new law would have meant that anyone who wanted to temporarily rent a property would have to explain why and provide a valid reason.

For example, students or researchers would have to show the research contract or course booking to show it would only last a few months.

It would have also meant that if more than six months passed or more than two consecutive contracts issued, it will have automatically become a long-term habitual residence instead.

On Tuesday September 17th, the proposal was ultimately rejected in the Spanish Congress, voted against by Spain’s three main right-wing parties – Catalan nationalists Junts, Spain’s main opposition party the PP and far-right Vox.

The aim in part was to try and rectify the controversial Housing Law, which came into effect in 2023.

In most people’s eyes, the legislation has failed as landlords have found several loopholes to get around the restrictions, prices have continued to increase and the stock of rental properties is even more diminished.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

As a result of the fear of heightened regulation for landlords, many have left the traditional market and turned to tourist rentals or temporary accommodation instead, which are far more lucrative. 

This has had the opposite effect, increasing rental prices instead of stabilising or decreasing them.

READ MORE: Why landlords in Spain leave their flats empty rather than rent long-term

Seasonal contracts and room rentals allow landlords to raise prices every six or nine months and they not subject to the price limitations of the housing law.

The idea of this new law was to try and set the maximum duration of a temporary rental contracts at six months in order to avoid this, but it could have potentially also caused problems for many who need this type accommodation such as students, digital nomads, those living here on a short term basis etc. 

During the debate, Sumar’s spokesperson, Íñigo Errejón, defended the law saying that it is a “solvent”, “fair” and “precise” proposal, which will help “correct an abuse” and “close the gap through which “Landlords can use to avoid the LAU (Urban Leasing Law) and rent regulation”.  

Far-left party Podemos blamed the ruling PSOE for having left this “hole” in the housing law, but also agreed that the restrictions on temporary accommodation were needed to try and rectify this.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

Junts (Catalonia’s main pro-independence party) and the PNV, the Basque nationalist party, were firmly against it. They agreed that the problem must be solved and that “accessible decent housing was needed”, but raised the situation of students, interns, residents or workers who need housing for flexible periods.

Junts party member Marta Madrenas warned of the harmful effects that this limitation on temporary rentals can have for university cities such as Girona.

Vox and the PP meanwhile argued that they don’t want to help cover up the mistakes made by the left with regards to the Housing Law.

Vox deputy Ignacio Hoces stated that the increase in seasonal rentals has occurred due to the “failure” of the Housing Law, since this has caused rental prices to “skyrocketed” by 13 percent and the supply to be reduced by 15 percent.

Temporary accommodation, referred to as alquiler temporal or alquiler de temporada in Spanish, is considered to be anything that’s longer than a month but shorter than a year, middle ground between short-term and long-term rentals. It is also referred to as monthly accommodation or seasonal accommodation.

SHOW COMMENTS