Junts will tip the balance: Puigdemont's leadership meets today to decide the vote on the housing decrees

BarcelonaPodemos confirms that it will vote in favor of the two housing decrees approved following the Maricarmen case. The leader of the purple party, Ione Belarra, has announced the endorsement of all the measures approved by the Spanish government, in line with what the Madrid Tenants' Union had requested. The PNV is also doing so, although in this case they will vote in favor of the first —the anti-eviction decree— and against the second —the decree with indefinite contracts and compensation for tenants— so the latter will certainly fail. Therefore, with less than 24 hours left before the vote in the lower house, the decision remains in the hands of Junts —if the Canarian Coalition also votes in favor of the first decree, Junts' abstention would be sufficient for its validation.

Carles Puigdemont's party, as ARA has learned, plans to meet its leadership this evening to decide how to vote on the two housing decrees from the Spanish government that are to be voted on this Friday in Congress during an extraordinary plenary session. And on the table is the option of voting no. Junts sources consulted by ARA clarify that they have not yet made a decision, but publicly the party's spokesperson, Miriam Nogueras, has expressed "concern and disappointment" regarding the content of the decrees. Junts is convening the permanent committee and not the executive, which is the broader governing body. Normally, decisions of the permanent committee are usually made by unanimity.

"No fear of getting burned for continuing to defend the interests of the families and the business fabric of our country. We have demonstrated this many times. We demonstrated it when we halted the approval of the reduction of the working day, which would have caused a lot of harm to small and medium-sized enterprises. We are aware that these are not easy or very media-friendly decisions," declared Nogueras herself this Wednesday night at a Pimec dinner in Catalonia.

Junts had been exchanging proposals with the Ministry of Housing for months, but contacts accelerated after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal and when the PSOE showed willingness to adopt part of the proposals from Carles Puigdemont's party, including tax incentives for tenants and landlords or limiting the purchase of properties by vulture funds. However, pressure from the left has led the PSOE to introduce other measures that Junts had previously rejected in Congress, such as the automatic two-year extension of rental contracts or the suspension of evictions for vulnerable families. Junts had requested that small landlords be distinguished or compensated if the administration could not find a housing alternative, but they consider that the wording approved by the Council of Ministers is not well-drafted. In this regard, they also do not like the second decree-law, which, separately, establishes indefinite rental contracts and compensation for the tenant if the landlord breaks the automatic extension.

They also reject the final wording regarding vulture funds, which the Spanish government has channeled through prohibiting the purchase of properties below 70% of their value. Junts' proposal was, according to the sources consulted, to directly veto these operations for specific legal entities, such as banking entities, their subsidiaries, or investment companies. At the same time, they are wary of the strengthening of the right of first refusal and retraction. They consider that, as written, it leads to confusion about whether, in the event of the landlord's death, the tenant's right to buy the apartment takes precedence over the inheritance. An interpretation that the Spanish government rejects.

Indefinite contracts fall

For its part, the PNV has announced a "critical" yes to the decree that protects vulnerable people and a "no" to the second decree, the one on indefinite contracts, because it considers it an "attack on the small property owner and it will restrict the supply" of rentals. As a result of their no, and regardless of what Junts does, this second decree will not prosper, meaning the proposal falls (it was one of the main demands of the Tenants' Union).

The Basque group considers that the text with social measures is "a temporary patch with many shortcomings". In fact, the Basque nationalists criticize the Spanish government for "legislating in the heat of the moment".

Pressure from the Spanish government

The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, has reiterated calls to at least support the measures to stop evictions, grouped in the first of the two decree-laws. And she has sent a message specifically directed at Junts: "We have all made concessions, but the text is good for the majority of Spaniards and the majority of Catalans; I hope the vote will be affirmative," she said on SER.

Rodríguez, who has assured that she only has "kind words" for the joint work with the party members and wanted to be "cautious" about the outcome of the negotiations, also said that she has "hope" that at least the first of the decrees will go forward, and has assured that, if it is validated, "there will be no more evictions of vulnerable people in Spain".

Despite calling for the approval of both decrees, Rodríguez admitted quietly that the first one, with a broad battery of measures such as the suspension of evictions and tax incentives, is more "mature" than the second, which includes the automatic extension of leases. This second text was already published this Thursday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and provides that landlords must compensate tenants with a minimum of one year of rent if they refuse to renew contracts unjustifiably.

Aznar describes the decrees as Francoist policy

The one that has directly closed the door to giving it any kind of support has been the PP. This Thursday, moreover, with the approval of FAES, the foundation led by the former Spanish president José María Aznar, which has accused Pedro Sánchez's government of "resurrecting" Franco's housing policy: "The same government that exhumed Franco's corpse is resurrecting his housing policy: price controls, forced extensions, massive interventionism and not a single measure to alleviate the situation", the foundation criticized in a statement collected by the ACN, in which it considers that the decrees that will be voted on in Congress "incentivize occupations" and "coerce owners and investors".