Elections, housing and Maricarmen

The encampments against evictions and the death of Maricarmen Abascal, who became a popular symbol of the fight for housing, have marked the starting signal for the race towards the elections to the Cortes. There is no doubt that, right now, access to decent housing is the main problem for Catalan and Spanish society. The latest CIS survey, a monograph on the subject, does nothing but confirm the clamor in favor of a change in policies. People want solutions: seven out of ten citizens are in favor of freezing rent prices for two years, and also seven or more out of ten people are in favor of giving more guarantees to owners in the face of possible non-payments, limiting tourist apartments, and raising taxes on large holders.

It is clear that the problem is not only for the most vulnerable layers, but it fully affects the middle class and also has an intergenerational character. So both young people and the elderly can see themselves, and do see themselves, affected by housing insecurity, with tragic cases like that of Maricarmen, whose death in the hospital, at 87 years old, has impacted public opinion.

This is the context in which the elections arrive. The right and the far-right wanted immigration to be what set the political agenda. In fact, when immigration dominates the public debate, they have every chance of winning. Hence, Sánchez, after stumbling with the management of Ceuta and seeing himself harassed judicially and politically by corruption cases, has played hard to take advantage of—and ruthlessly capitalize on—the Maricarmen case. He has shaken up the playing field. From the start, he has succeeded. The atmosphere has changed. He was swift with the housing decrees, which he will end up pushing forward (only the first one) in the permanent deputation of Congress, where Junts has no vote. There is, furthermore, the call for the general strike on November 11th, also focused on housing, which will keep the issue on the front line.

Suddenly, then, Ceuta has been left behind. The PP vetoed this Thursday, in the Senate and in the Assembly and the City Council of Madrid, the minutes of silence proposed by the left in memory of the woman who died two weeks after her eviction. And Vox directly accused Sánchez of "killing" Maricarmen.

Sánchez's tactical skill is unquestionable. It remains to be seen, however, whether this movement will allow him to recover ground in the polls and mobilize his voters at the ballot box. For the moment, in any case, those who were motivated until now were the right-wing voters. It also remains to be seen whether the groups to the left of the PSOE will also take advantage of the wave to rebuild themselves. The bet on an Ada Colau who comes precisely from housing activism fits well into this new social and emotional framework. A bet that also seeks to add up the different conflicting sensitivities and go beyond Sumar. In particular, Colau aspires to find a formula to join forces with Irene Montero's Podemos. But as much as they all share the leitmotif of the right to housing, it will not be easy. The electoral battle has been tinged, right now, with the fight for housing: to what extent will it benefit Sánchez?