Sumar pressures Junts to approve the housing decree: "They have to explain why they are harming citizens"

MadridAfter the clash with the PSOE within the Council of Ministers last Friday, Sumar is now directing all pressure to Junts and the PP to ratify the extension of rental contracts and the limitation of price increases. It is the second decree that was approved prior to the clash between the PSOE and Sumar: it has been in force since Sunday, but it needs the approval of the Congress – with the decisive vote of Junts – to avoid expiring. At first hour this Monday, in an interview on RNE, the second vice-president of the Spanish government, Yolanda Díaz, made it clear that the vote will be "the last day" to extend the validity period for validating the norm as much as possible. Thus, Moncloa will have thirty business days to bring this decree-law to the lower house, which places the parliamentary examination in the first week of May. "The three right-wing parties must explain why they harm the citizens of our country," said Díaz. Shortly after, on TVE, the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, called for the "greatest pressure campaign" to be launched to ensure that the lower house gives it the green light.

On the other hand, the first decree approved on Friday, which contains fiscal measures and will be put to a vote this Thursday, also does not have guaranteed parliamentary support. Without clarifying the sense of its vote, Podem has criticized that it will be "ineffective" in lowering prices and "insufficient to protect people". On the other side of the political board, the PP has demanded more tax reductions. The popular deputy secretary Cuca Gamarra announced that they will send a letter to the Spanish government to "convey their concern and disappointment" because the decree "falls short". "More aid is needed," she argued. The PP demands that the IRPF be deflated "immediately". However, even with these initial objections, Génova also does not clarify the sense of its vote pending a response from Moncloa and while it continues to analyze the set of proposals contained in the decree.

Pressure tactic on Junts

And the message has been repeated successively in the unitary event convened by Sumar in Congress. The Constitutional Chamber of the lower house has hosted the five ministers from the space to the left of the PSOE, as well as the leader of United Left, Antonio Maíllo, and deputies from the parliamentary group. The spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, Verónica Martínez, inaugurated the conclave by boasting that they have been a "decisive piece" and a "political engine" to "push" the PSOE to enable "progress" and opened the door to pressure Junts: "Let each group think about its vote, politics only makes sense if it guarantees rights and security for those who need it most," she demanded. And the rest of the speakers took up the challenge.

"The Spanish government did what it had to do, now we must mobilize everyone," proclaimed Yolanda Díaz in front of her supporters. And she asked that the deputies meet with the unions and with the environmentalist and feminist collectives to "win in the streets a measure that is already in force" and work to "mobilize" society. "Whoever overturns it will have to account for what they are doing," she warned the PP, Junts, and Vox.

The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, also sent a message to Junts: "We invite them to reflect deeply on how to serve the interests of Catalonia." "It is useless for the Spanish government to impose vetoes on itself and not bring things to Congress for fear of losing them," he added. The federal coordinator of United Left, Antonio Maíllo, guaranteed that they will make Junts "sweat profusely" and expressed confidence that there will be "broad social mobilization." "We will give our all. Pedro Sánchez dedicated a minute to it [in the press conference] and we will dedicate a month to it," said the Minister of Health, Mónica Garcia.

Podemos will vote in favor of the housing decree

In parallel, Podem announced this Monday that it will vote in favor of the housing decree because it contains "measures that can be positive", even though the purples predict that the vote will derail because the Spanish government opted to "isolate the measures" in an independent decree. According to the Secretary of Organization, Pablo Fernández, they would have wanted everything to be included in a single text so that the right-wing parties "would have had a little more difficulty opposing it". Furthermore, he believes it is "worrying" and "scandalous" that Moncloa has not included the moratorium on evictions for vulnerable families. On the other hand, without clarifying what the meaning of his vote will be, he criticized that the decree containing fiscal measures will be "ineffective" in lowering prices and "insufficient to protect people".

Junts opposes it

The same Friday afternoon, Junts deputy Marta Madrenas already made it clear that Junts will not support the housing decree. In a video she shared on her social networks, she criticized that the extension of rental contracts "makes no sense", she equated it with a "disguised temporary expropriation without compensation", she framed it within a "line of anti-property policies that continues to sink the rental market" and accused the PSOE and Sumar of "cutting property owners' rights as they see fit". "What does the war in Iran have to do with this? Why two years? Is it a coincidence or does it coincide too well with the electoral calendar?", she asked, regarding the term for which the Spanish government has extended rents.