Andorra Social Democrat Leader Slams 15-Year Growth Model in Debate

Susanna Vela, leader of the Social Democrat parliamentary group, has challenged the growth model pursued by Democratic governments over the past 15 years during the Political Orientation Debate. She questioned whether the country's economic opening stemmed from a deliberate national strategy or simply an assumption that any investment was inherently positive.

Vela acknowledged progress under the model but argued it has reached exhaustion, as evidenced by persistent challenges including housing shortages, barriers to young people's emancipation, traffic congestion, and strain on public services. She contended that Andorra has conflated economic expansion with the public interest, delaying structural reforms until issues escalated into crises.

Highlighting housing as the "main brake on the country's development," Vela noted it now functions more as an investment asset than a basic guarantee, hindering family formation and talent attraction. "When professionals cannot come to Andorra because they cannot find housing, it is a structural problem; it is a failure as a country," she said. She urged anticipation of such issues through better governance.

Taking aim at a frequent remark by Head of Government Xavier Espot—"I prefer to create wealth rather than distribute poverty"—Vela countered that the real discussion concerns "what wealth we create and who benefits from it." She called for shifting focus from raw growth to quality of life and well-being metrics, asking whether progress should be measured by revenue or by living standards.

Among her proposals, Vela advocated renewed territorial planning, an urbanism law to protect natural spaces and cap development based on the land's true capacity, and addressing debates like abortion decriminalisation to align with a rights-based Europe. "It is not the end of Andorra, but the end of one way of understanding the country," she concluded.