Albiol Ties Immigration to Night Thefts in Pitch to Young Catalan Voters
PP candidate Xavier García Albiol linked immigration to thefts outside nightclubs at a Terrassa rally. He also set up a housing debate with Ada Colau.
Xavier García Albiol, the People’s Party (PP) candidate in Catalonia for the Nov. 29 general election, again linked immigration with crime on Saturday, this time in a direct appeal to young voters, elDiario.es reported. Speaking in the center of Terrassa, he claimed that most thefts in Catalonia are committed by immigrants and singled out people from the Maghreb.
Albiol, who is also mayor of Badalona, told young people that thieves wait for them when they leave nightclubs to take their phones and wallets. He asked for their vote so the PP could take what he calls the “Badalona recipe” on security to the whole of Spain.
A rally in Terrassa’s Plaça Vella
He spoke in the Plaça Vella of Terrassa, the co-capital of the Vallès Occidental county, as local residents gathered around him during the speech. As in his other appearances, he aimed for voters across the usual party lines, the approach that won him the mayor’s office in Badalona.
Albiol built the speech around what he described as a robbery in central Barcelona in the early hours of Saturday. He said people repeatedly target young people coming out of clubs in the main cities of the metropolitan area and that in most cases the attackers are foreigners. He did not cite figures for that claim, according to the report.
“Not everyone who has come from abroad comes to commit crimes,” he said, before adding that Spain has a security problem with what he called certain immigration. He urged voters not to bury their heads in the sand and said the problem cannot be solved unless it is admitted.
What it means for the housing debate
PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has put Albiol in charge of drafting a new party law against illegal squatting (ocupación). That role has led Albiol to set up a direct contrast between the PP’s housing policy and that of Frente Amplio, the coalition led by former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.
Colau, the candidate of the Comuns, accepted on Friday his proposal to hold a debate on the housing crisis. The two campaign teams still have to agree on the format and conditions. Albiol welcomed her acceptance and said the debate could be interesting and carry “a certain morbid appeal.”
For renters and owners in Barcelona, the debate would put the two main local positions on housing face to face before the vote.
What the polls say
A poll published on Saturday by the newspaper Ara points to a slight drop for the PP in Catalonia and strong growth for Vox. Asked about it, Albiol said the only poll that counts is the one on Nov. 29 and that his impressions on the ground are good.
He said the PP will win seats in all four Catalan electoral districts and expects the party to grow in Barcelona, where he heads the list. According to Albiol, the party is seeing a steady trickle of people who have never voted for it before.
Source: elDiario.es
