Sánchez states that he is working against the clock to approve the housing decree on Tuesday: "It is a matter of humanity"

BarcelonaPedro Sánchez has tried to send a response message to the pressure from the street for the Spanish government to approve the new housing decree this very Tuesday. In fact, he addressed Maricarmen Abascal directly, who this Saturday demanded that he approve this regulation next week: "Maricarmen, I have a message for you: We are working against the clock to bring the royal housing decree next Tuesday". "It is not a question of ideology, but of humanity", he defended at a PSOE event in Madrid to present his mayoral candidates for next year's municipal elections. Furthermore, the Spanish president has also promised that on Tuesday the council of ministers will approve an extension until the end of the year of the measures that include the social shield that was approved a few months ago to deal with the war in Ukraine.

Since Wednesday, when 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her home, thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand that this resident of Madrid's Retiro neighborhood be allowed to return to her home, and also to demand structural measures to end the housing crisis that has been shaking the entire country for some time. The most graphic image of this wave of indignation took place this Saturday in Madrid, when thousands of people took to the streets to defend the right to housing. A march that ended with an encampment in the central Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, where the seat of the Madrid government is located, and which protesters expect to last until next Tuesday, when the Spanish government is scheduled to approve the decree at the council of ministers.

Sánchez, in this regard, has asked for a "final effort" from the parliamentary groups to reach an agreement. The Spanish president reproached the right—specifically addressing the PP and avoiding mentioning Junts—for voting against the two housing decrees that the Spanish government brought forward last February and April. "They voted against the royal decree that would not have allowed Maricarmen to be evicted from her home today," he stated.

The negotiations with the groups

While street pressure continues, the Ministry of Housing continues to negotiate the new decree with its investiture partners. In fact, the pressure is not only on the streets, but the minority partner in the coalition government, Sumar, is also demanding that the PSOE bring the decree to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday. If not, it has threatened to skip the meeting. In this sense, the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has encouraged those camped out at Plaza del Sol to maintain the mobilization to further pressure the government, of which Sumar is a part. Díaz has demanded that the decree to be approved on Tuesday "take a step forward" to address the housing crisis. "We want the royal decree to crack down on vulture funds, to say that enough is enough with these investment funds that do not pay taxes in our country and are making a fortune at the expense of working people," she defended at the PCE festival.

The socialists face the challenge of reconciling the demands of the left with those defended by Junts. And, from the outset, Podemos has already shown its reluctance for the Spanish executive to open itself up to accepting the conditions of Carles Puigdemont's party. "The mobilization must grow. We need to expropriate housing from vulture funds, prohibit speculation, and lower rent prices. The government is negotiating with Junts and the PNB to do the same thing as always, which is for all the people who go out into the street to defend the right to housing to just swallow it," said the MEP and number two of Podemos, Irene Montero, in statements to the media.

For now, the Junts members have proposed banning evictions by vulture funds and also the purchase of housing by these entities, but they ask that the extension of rental contracts be voluntary. "We must ensure that small property owners have legal security and tax incentives to put apartments on the rental market," said the Secretary General of Junts, Jordi Turull, to El Nacional, something he considers "not at odds with stopping the vulture funds in their tracks". The negotiation will intensify in the coming hours.