Operación Chamartín: BBVA Prepares To Denounce Carmena

5 July 2016 – Cinco Días

The President of Distrito Castellana Norte, Antonio Béjar, has revealed that the company’s legal team will present an appeal to the High Court of Justice in Madrid (TSJM) within the next few weeks to denounce the nullity of the decision taken by the Town Hall to reject this project under development, known as Operación Chamartín.

In an interview with Europa Press, Béjar also detailed that “later on” and if the “blocking” situation continues, DCN’s legal team will submit a claim for damage to property and economic losses against the Town Hall after it rejected its plans without any technical basis, even though they fulfil the General Urban Development Plan (PGOU).

The President of Distrito Castellana Norte, the entity driven by BBVA and Grupo San José, expressed his “disappointment” at the position adopted by the Town Hall for denying its development plan based on “primarily political criteria, with no technical or legal basis”.

Regarding whether the outcome of the elections may change the Town Hall’s position and facilitate negotiations, Béjar said that the municipal government team has expressed “publically that its position was going to mainly depend” on the political decision taken by the Ministry of Development (Ana Pastor is a supporter of DCN’s project) in the event that there is a change in government.

“The Town Hall will have to take a decision in this regard. Meanwhile, we will not rest on our laurels, it is our duty to defend our rights when we understand that they have not been adequately addressed”, said the President of DCN.

“We are convinced that the courts will overturn the Town Hall’s decision, we consider that the reasons employed have no legal grounds”, he added to indicate that, according to the criteria set forth in its appeal, the Town Hall may only reject the definitive approval of the plan if it is able to cite reasons of general interest, whereas, in his opinion, the Town Hall has cited “minor formal reasons”. (…).

Meanwhile, Béjar confirmed that the Town Hall’s “blocking” of the development of Operación Chamartín, by rejecting its plan and presenting its own plan for Madrid Puerta Norte, is “detrimental” for Madrilenians. According to him, the municipal alternative is “not feasible and cannot be carried out in practice”.

“Madrid Puerta Norte – the Town Hall’s alternative project – is a proposal designed to drive out private initiatives…and to allow the public administrations to become the next property developers, using taxpayers’ money…” said the President of DCN. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake

Carmena Will Not Sever Ties With Banks That Evict Families

27 May 2015 – El Confidencial Digital

The candidate for mayor of Madrid distances herself from Podemos and says that she will not apply the measure that Teresa Rodríguez imposed on Susana Díaz.

The greatest triumph of Podemos in the municipal elections held on 24 May has been the opportunity to become the mayor of the largest city in Spain. However, Manuela Carmena will govern Madrid without implementing one of the most controversial measures proposed by the party led by Pablo Iglesias.

It was after the elections in Andalucía when Podemos launched the headline-grabbing idea: to sever ties with the banks that force the eviction (of families) from homes with mortgages that the owners cannot pay.

The leader and regional candidate, Teresa Rodríguez, proposed this measure during talks with Susana Díaz to negotiate a possible agreement to allow the inauguration of the socialist as President of the Regional Government. Firstly, she demanded that the Andalucían Government should not work with banks that carry out evictions and next, she reduced the condition to require that the Government should not hold accounts with financial institutions that evict those unable to pay their mortgages.

After proposing this measure, several municipal candidates supported by Podemos for the May 24 elections included in their electoral program, or at least declared in public, their commitment to severing ties with banks involved in evictions.

Negotiations with the banks and non-retaliation

However, Confidencial Digital has learned that this measure will not be applied by the candidate who will govern Madrid’s town hall, given that Ahora Madrid did not include this idea in its election manifesto.

Sources close to the candidacy of Manuela Carmena confirm that this measure is not included in her election manifesto and therefore, she does not plan to apply it if she ends up ruling the municipal government of Spain’s capital.

“Ahora Madrid is committed to stopping evictions”, says the electoral manifesto of the municipal brand of Podemos for these elections. Below, it details a series of proposals that the town hall will undertake to avoid evicting people from primary residences and, in the event that they do take place, to offer an alternatives for evicted families.

Nevertheless, at no time does it mention “non-retaliation” against the banks that carry out evictions. Carmena’s manifesto includes only, amongst other measures, incentives for use to be made of  empty homes held by the financial institutions or the “bad bank” (Sareb), through agreements whereby the homes are transferred to the public stock of housing for use in the rental scheme.

Other Podemos candidates do support the measure

It is noteworthy that the candidacy of Ahora Madrid is distancing itself from one of the measures that, after being proposed by Teresa Rodríguez in Andalucía, was supported by many of the candidates that stood in the municipal elections, with the support of Podemos.

That is the case in Sevilla, where Participa Sevilla publicly committed that, if it was elected to the Town Hall, the Sevilla government would not work with banks that evict (people). Its candidate for mayor, Susana Serrano, even asserted that “it is inconsistent that the money from evicted families is held in the same banks that evicts them”.

Participa Sevilla will be key to enabling the socialist Juan Espadas to take the capital of Andalucía from the Popular candidate Juan Igancio Zoido. But the proposals made by the candidates supported by Podemos are more noteworthy; furthermore, they have won the elections and, presumably, will govern the town halls.

In La Coruña, Marea Atlántica – which won four more votes than the second ranked party, the PP – intends to apply the “cancelation of balances with banking institutions that carry out evictions”. Meanwhile, Barcelona En Comú, which has won with Ada Colau as the leader, is going to study measures to put pressure on the banks that do not negotiate with the town hall to put a stop to the evictions: including, “putting a stop to trading with the banking entities in question” and imposing sanctions on those banks.

Original story: El Confidencial Digital

Translation: Carmel Drake