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 message this Sunday in response to the pressure from the streets for the Spanish government to approve the new housing decree this very Tuesday. In fact, he addressed Maricarmen Abascal directly, the 87-year-old woman who was evicted on Wednesday and who this Saturday asked him directly—through a video recorded from the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid—to approve this regulation to prevent a case like hers from being repeated. "Maricarmen, I have a message for you: we are working against the clock to bring the royal decree on housing on Tuesday," affirmed Sánchez. "It is not a matter of ideology, but of humanity," he added at a PSOE event in Madrid in Getafe to present his mayoral candidates for next year's municipal elections. Furthermore, the Spanish president also promised that on Tuesday the Council of Ministers will approve an extension until the end of the year for the measures that include the social shield that was approved a few months ago to deal with the war in Ukraine.

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

Sánchez, in this regard, has asked for a "last effort" from the parliamentary groups to reach an agreement. The Spanish president reproached the right wing – specifically addressing the PP and avoiding mentioning Junts – for voting against the two housing decrees that the Spanish government proposed in February and April. "They voted against the royal decree that would not have allowed Maricarmen to be out of her home today," he said. The socialist president took the opportunity to point once again to the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, as one of those responsible for the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal. "They have money to buy a luxury penthouse and not to protect Maricarmen and vulnerable people like her," he retorted.

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 governing coalition, 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 camping at Puerta del Sol to maintain the mobilization to put even more pressure on the government, of which Sumar is a part. Díaz has demanded that the decree to be approved on Tuesday serve to take "a step forward" to address the housing crisis. "We want the royal decree to crack down on vulture funds, to say enough is enough with these investment funds, which do not pay taxes in our country and which are getting rich at the expense of working people," she said from 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, ban speculation, and lower rent prices. The government is negotiating with Junts and the PNV to do the same as always, which is for all the people who take to the streets to defend the right to housing to just swallow it," said MEP and number two of Podemos, Irene Montero, in statements to the media.

ERC also made its demands public this Sunday. In a tweet, the party's president, Oriol Junqueras, called for establishing a rent cap for seasonal housing and rooms; suspending all evictions of "vulnerable people"; establishing an extraordinary 2-year extension for housing rental contracts that expire when the new housing decree comes into force; ending "the privileges of investment companies"; and giving "more municipal autonomy to raise the IBI (property tax) for large landlords and tourist-use housing".

For now, the Junts members have proposed banning evictions by vulture funds and also prohibiting them from purchasing homes, but they are requesting that the extension of rental contracts be voluntary. This Sunday, the secretary-general of Junts, Jordi Turull, defended "stopping in their tracks" the vulture funds, but also warned that they will not vote in favor of measures they consider harmful to small property owners, he said from the Alderi Eguna festivals of the PNB in Vitoria. The negotiation will intensify in the coming hours.