The Spanish government accelerates contacts with Junts for a new housing decree after the Maricarmen case

MadridThe eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old Madrid resident who uses a wheelchair, has shaken the entire State. The case of this elderly woman has become symbolic due to her vulnerability, and the protests, which this Wednesday gathered in front of her building to try to prevent her from being thrown out of her home, have had political repercussions. The parties to the left of the PSOE have not been slow to demand a new housing decree from the Spanish government. Sumar, the minority partner, is asking for it to be approved at next week's council of ministers and for it to include, among other things, the expropriation of Maricarmen's apartment from its owners, the investment fund Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión S. L. But they are not enough for the package of measures to move forward in Congress. Pedro Sánchez needs the votes of all the parties in the investiture bloc and that includes Junts. After the breakdown of the relationship with the socialists, the residential emergency has brought negotiations back to the playing field.

Sources from Junts in Congress explain that contacts are underway and that a document with the concrete measures they would be willing to approve was handed directly to Pedro Sánchez two weeks ago – it should be remembered that the Spanish government had already committed in the summer to recovering the decree on residential matters this month of September. The truth is that Carles Puigdemont's followers have voted against the latest housing decrees because they included proposals that, due to how they were presented, they rejected. On the other hand, parties like Podemos threatened not to give their support to other measures if this – the prohibition of some evictions – was not included. Once again, Pedro Sánchez will have to solve a puzzle that until now has led him down a tortuous path.

But this resumption of talks has not pleased everyone. The ERC spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, believes it is a "mistake" to accept the "blackmail" of the Junts members and allow Míriam Nogueras's party to "set the limits". It is not the first time that ERC has seen how negotiation with Junts waters down the ambitions of the republicans and other parties to the left of the PSOE. One example is the definitive farewell to the extraordinary tax on energy companies. Rufián has demanded that it be the Moncloa and the left-wing partners who "impose" the measures.

United Nations warning

However, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Koldo Casla, did not hesitate to put the Spanish law in the spotlight: "The case makes it clear that current Spanish legislation does not guarantee an individualized proportionality analysis," he denounces. Casla believes that the judge should have stopped it "to prevent irreparable harm."

On the other hand, the person who downplayed the idea that Maricarmen's case was extraordinary was Isabel Díaz Ayuso: "It is one of the 25,000 [evictions] that occur every year," she said. In a speech before the Circle of Entrepreneurs, the President of the Community of Madrid reproached the Spanish government for holding her responsible for the events: "They are trying to dehumanize and harass us" and she did not hesitate to speak about Catalonia to point out that, even though she is being criticized, "for every eviction that occurs in Madrid, there are five in Catalonia."

According to data from the Judiciary, indeed, during 2025, 25,540 "launches" (evictions) were carried out, of which 6,814 were in Catalonia (26.7%). In the Community of Madrid, 2,267 were carried out (8.9%), that is, three times fewer. However, Madrid has one million fewer inhabitants than Catalonia and 8% more average net income per household, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).

"Yesterday we saw a harrowing event: how an 87-year-old person was evicted, soullessly. The blindness, the greed for money, which tramples on an 87-year-old person. This is not the model of society we want. We, the institutions, are here to fight this, at least the Catalan ones," reacted the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, this Thursday. This week, evictions have also been carried out in Catalonia.

The clash within the executive

Amid the social and political impact caused by the eviction of Maricarmen, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente (PSOE), has entered into direct conflict with left-wing parties in the State, particularly with Sumar, over their demands regarding housing. "Let's see if all this at least serves so that those who would solve the housing problem in a jiffy, solve another problem that should be simpler: their own. They just need to reach an agreement and not show up under 20 acronyms and hand the government over to the far-right. That is as easy as pie," the minister snapped in a message on the social network X.

On Tuesday, Puente also reproached the parties to the left of the PSOE for giving him "lessons" on how to be left-wing. "Neither [Ada] Colau nor anyone can beat me at being left-wing and brave," Puente stated after the former mayor of Barcelona asked the Comuns to leave the State government if no action was taken against vulture funds. Faced with Puente's words, the leader of Més Madrid in the community and Minister of Health, Mónica García, asked him "not to confuse the adversary": "It is not Ada Colau who should be asked for accountability".