Sánchez risks it all with the 'Maricarmen decree'

The pressure on the streets for the Spanish government to approve the new housing decree to curb evictions has increased this weekend. The citizen mobilization has been an indisputable success. As the promoters of the demonstration and the encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid have said themselves, it cannot be compared to the 15-M of 2011. There is less underlying ideological movement and more concrete demands. In reality, the current cry has a perfectly describable objective: to resolve access to housing, which has become the main cause of precariousness and inequality. And it responds to a very generalized malaise that is interclass and intergenerational. The image of Maricarmen Abascal, 87 years old, being evicted on a stretcher from the apartment where she has lived all her life, has made an impact on public opinion: many elderly citizens have imagined themselves in her situation, and many young people and adults have projected their own grandmother or mother onto her.

With this state of mind installed in the social imaginary, the pressure on the State government, and on the parties that support it, has had an almost immediate effect. The Maricarmen decree, as the protesters have dubbed it, now concentrates all expectations. The first move was made by Junts, which until now had been inflexible on the matter and had caused the housing decree to fail in the spring. Junts' change of position has reopened negotiations, which, however, will not be easy, because the left-wing groups, taking advantage of the pressure on the streets, want to take the legislation further than what is predictable for both the PNB and the Puigdemont supporters to accept, as they propose to stop the vulture funds in exchange for a tax cut for small owners. In fact, the Madrid Tenants' Union has raised the bar: “We want indefinite rental contracts”. Sumar, in addition, has threatened not to attend the executive council if the proposal does not satisfy them.

Sánchez's problem is, therefore, once again, to reconcile Junts and the PNB with Sumar and Podemos in a measure that satisfies all parties. Citizen mobilization and the deadline of Tuesday's council of ministers do not make it easy. If he succeeds, once again Sánchez will have turned a critical moment into a new impulse, making a virtue of necessity. After the slow and ineffective reaction to the migration crisis in Ceuta, still unresolved –and with the PP and Vox fueling the debate and taking it to the streets as well, as seen over the weekend–, the Spanish president cannot afford a new failure on another crucial social issue such as housing. An issue in which the right to housing must be balanced with the right to private property, limiting large landlords and boosting the supply of public apartments.

Therefore, we are facing a decisive all-in. If, as intended, the text is approved as a decree, it enters into force immediately. Congress must validate it without modifications within a month. Hence the importance of what is currently being negotiated. With the growing wear and tear that a Sánchez pressured from all sides faces, his future is currently tied to the Maricarmen decree.