PP Names Badalona Mayor Albiol to Draft Anti-Squatting Law

Xavier García Albiol, the mayor of Badalona, will write the Partido Popular (PP) proposal against illegal squatting (okupación), according to ABC. Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo gave him the job. The goal is to have squatters leave a property within 48 hours, which would require a reform of the law, ABC reported.

The proposal comes as parties campaign ahead of the vote on Nov. 29. Housing is one of the main themes of the PP campaign, ABC said.

What Albiol said

Albiol, whose city neighbors Barcelona, posted a video message on X on Nov. 12 addressed to squatters. He said he will be responsible for drafting the law against illegal squatting, as Feijóo asked him to do. He added that he would go after people who force open doors and enter homes that are not theirs, so that squatters must leave in 48 hours and neighbors and owners can live in peace.

He also said that, if the PP governs with real power to act, squatting would stop being one of the issues that most worries Spaniards. Feijóo mentioned the 48-hour target a few days earlier on the television program El Hormiguero, according to ABC.

The rest of the PP housing plan

According to ABC, the PP has already presented some of its housing measures. They include a reform of the land law and changes to the horizontal property law, which governs buildings with several owners. In figures, the party proposes building one million homes.

The PP also wants to protect property owners through several forms of legal certainty. One is a social fund for tenants who cannot keep paying rent for reasons of force majeure (circumstances beyond their control), so that they do not become inquiokupas, a term for tenants who stay in a home without paying.

What’s at stake for owners and tenants

The plan is a campaign proposal, not a change in the law. Any move to have squatters removed within 48 hours would need a legal reform, and the text that Albiol is to write has not been published. Whether and when it could take effect depends on the PP reaching government, a condition Albiol himself referred to.

For owners and tenants in Catalonia and the rest of Spain, the proposal would change the rules on evictions from occupied homes only if it passes into law. The other measures in the package, from the land law reform to the social fund, are likewise at the stage of announced plans.

Source: ABC