Colau to Comuns: Quit Spain's Government or Be "Complicit" in PSOE's "Cowardice"

Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau has called on her party, the Comuns, to leave Spain's coalition government if it fails to act against "vulture funds." Her demand came after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from her Madrid home of 70 years. "No longer can our political space be complicit in the cowardice of the PSOE," Colau said Wednesday on Instagram. The PSOE is the senior partner in the governing coalition. The eviction took place Wednesday at a flat on Calle Alcalde Sáinz de Baranda in Madrid. Maricarmen, 87, was carried out on a stretcher to an ambulance at 1:00 p.m. after a large police deployment. The eviction was ordered by Urbagestión, a company owned by businessmen Ricardo and Fernando Alonso. A "vulture fund" is an investment company that buys distressed assets, including homes, to profit from them. Critics say these funds often push out long-term residents who cannot afford to fight back. Colau, who stepped back from frontline politics but is still widely expected to return, accused Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of "blocking any initiative to stop" vulture funds. She said the government has not done "everything it could" to prevent the eviction. "The right has always been a friend of speculators, but the progressive coalition government has not done everything it could," she said. She called the eviction a potential "turning point" in the fight against housing speculation. "We cannot stay in the government if it is not to make the maximum effort to confront vulture funds and end speculation and rent-seeking," she said. "And if the PSOE is not willing, it should govern alone." Colau also warned that inaction would "give wings to the far right." The Comuns, who ran under the Sumar movement in the last general election, hold one ministerial post: Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun. On Wednesday, Urtasun admitted the country is "failing" and proposed expropriating the flat from which Maricarmen was evicted.