Housing is straining the relationship between the PSOE and Sumar more than ever.

MadridThe house, which remains the main concern of the SpanishThis has sparked a more bitter clash than usual between the PSOE and Sumar. The two coalition partners have been at odds all week after Pedro Sánchez will announce a 100% personal income tax bonus The measure, which would require landlords not to raise rents, has infuriated Yolanda Díaz's party. The second vice president of the government quickly labeled it a "grave error" and complained that the Spanish president announced it the day before a scheduled meeting to discuss housing. But Sánchez stood firm on the law, and Sumar has repeatedly made it clear that it will not support it. "We will never accept it; it is unfair, it is not sensible, and it will not work," declared the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, at a press conference on Friday. "As it stands, it will not have our support. Of course, we will have to negotiate," Sumar sources told ARA. Sources at the Ministry of Housing explained to this newspaper that they are indeed negotiating with both their coalition partner and their parliamentary allies, and indicated that meetings have taken place this week. Sources close to Minister Isabel Rodríguez are confident that an agreement will be reached in which everyone feels "comfortable," and they hope the deafening noise of the controversy will subside: "We all want the same thing."

This time, the socialist wing of the Spanish government isn't entirely confident of getting its way. "They've never been so closed-minded," notes a high-ranking member of the Council of Ministers. "Their belligerence has surprised me," the source adds. This stance is attributed to the struggle to the left of the PSOE and the need for Sumar to establish its own identity in relation to Podemos. For the moment, the socialists are "willing" to differentiate between large landlords and private individuals, a possibility to which Sumar responds by again denying that the "intervention" should involve subsidies. However, this is a request made by the CCOO and UGT unions, which believe that legal entities or anyone with three or more rental properties should be excluded from the subsidies.

Sumar's hostility towards this proposal is a major setback for the strategy Pedro Sánchez has maintained since returning from the Christmas holidays. The Spanish president has opted to multiply and maximize announcements with the aim of establishing a clear governing profile: in addition to rental subsidies, there are the creation of a sovereign wealth fund With 10.5 billion from European funds, the agreement for to provide reparations to the victims of pedophilia in the Church and the new regional funding.

The extension of 600,000 contracts

Far from the "gifts" proposed by Pedro Sánchez, Sumar's unwavering commitment for months has been an automatic extension of more than 600,000 contracts expiring in 2026, affecting 1.6 million people. The Ministry of Housing lowers the figure presented by Sumar and assures, for example, that contracts in Catalonia will not be affected—because the law does apply there. In fact, Sumar's ministers presented a decree last October to that effect. "A responsibility that this ministry will exercise with complete conviction and forcefulness is to defend it unwaveringly," Pablo Bustinduy emphasized on Friday.

So much so that Sumar has promoted a collection of signatures to claim it. However, a prominent Socialist minister disagrees: "They can't say it's either extended or nothing." In fact, in this case, there is also a legal discrepancy. The PSOE maintains that extending the contracts would be unconstitutional and insists that the key is that the PP doesn't want to apply the existing mechanisms, while Sumar asserts that "there are no legal doubts about their viability."

The current law includes bonuses

Besides Sumar, Esquerra Republicana has also opposed the increase in tax incentives for homeowners. They believe that the housing problem "will not be solved" with these types of measures: "They are very costly and very ineffective." Faced with the doubts expressed by Sumar, ERC, and Podemos—among others—sources at the Ministry of Housing maintain that Sánchez's proposal simply "expands" the existing tax breaks under the housing law, given the PP's resistance to implementing it: "It's the same spirit," they assert. They also point out that the parties now complaining supported that law. In that instance, the incentives were specifically for high-demand areas. "It's radically different in a market price context," Minister Pablo Bustinduy explained on Friday. Regarding ERC, sources within the party defended the ARA (Regional Housing Agency), stating that they agreed to incorporate these measures and vote in favor of the legislation because the law "as a whole was worthwhile and represented a step forward."