The Spanish government approves 'in extremis' the housing decree laws, but without having guaranteed the support of its partners

MadridAfter hours of very intense negotiation, the PSOE and Sumar have reached an 'in extremis' agreement within the Council of Ministers to approve a package of housing measures. "The effort was worth it," proclaimed the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, in the subsequent press conference, although at this moment the whole thing could last less than a week: there is no agreement among the groups of the plurinational majority for it to pass the filter of the Congress of Deputies. In fact, the groups do not have a text on which to pronounce themselves; it is being finalized after the agreement of the coalition partners. The vote in any case will take place on Friday in the Congress of Deputies, since the Spanish executive has requested an extraordinary plenary session, also taking advantage of the pressure on the street, especially at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid where the encampment is being maintained. "The social context gives us an opportunity," admit sources from the Moncloa, who must manage to put Junts and Podemos in the same equation.

What exactly has the Spanish government approved? To begin with, the PSOE and Sumar have decided to divide the measures into two different decree-laws. A first one that includes measures requested by the left such as Junts and the PNB: the extraordinary two-year rent extension, the halt of evictions for vulnerable families, the regulation of room rentals, the prohibition by vulture funds of the "speculative purchase" of housing—although it remains to be seen how they are defined—and tax breaks for both landlords and tenants. And a second decree-law that establishes indefinite rental contracts, a request from the Tenants' Union that had also been adopted by Sumar as well as Podemos, ERC, Bildu, Compromís, and the BNG, and which had been the point of contention with the PSOE until the very end.

With this division of measures, the Spanish government intends to approve at least the first one and trusts that social pressure will tip the balance in favor of the second as well. However, what is certain right now is that neither has guaranteed support from either: the parliamentary groups are waiting to know the final wording of the proposals, but this Tuesday, with a draft of the measures, all groups found faults with it. From Junts they claim that it "moves away" from the agreement they had worked on with the PSOE —they ask that the small owner be distinguished in the case of the ban on evictions—, while Podemos considers it a "patch". In any case, Rodríguez trusts in the "generosity" of the plurinational majority and has attacked the PP: "Why does Alberto Nuñez Feijóo not want to end vulture funds?".

For this reason, the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, has called for "generosity" to approve the package of housing measures on Friday in Congress. In her view, there is a "balance" among the proposals, it is an "ambitious" package and it also "stands up to speculation". The minister, thus, wanted to express her indignation, despite being in the government, regarding cases like that of Maricarmen Abascal, the elderly woman who was evicted from her home at 87 years old: "It is undignified. We cannot allow it".

To understand the difficulty of squaring the circle, one only needs to explain the behavior of the Sumar ministers. After entering the Council of Ministers meeting late and pressuring the PSOE until the last minute, they decided to hold a press conference parallel to the official one at Moncloa to nuance their position. Despite the pact, they made it clear that there are measures they do not share.

The head of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, said that he rejects the tax breaks, which were a demand from Junts and have been included with the will "to reach the agreement". He also verbalized that the five Sumar ministers wanted a single decree-law and that the automatic renewal of contracts, which was a "demand placed on the table by the popular movement", be included in the same package. In relation to this, the Minister of Housing justified that they had not worked on this measure with the groups, unlike the rest, which have already been debated and even rejected several times in the Congress of Deputies.