Sumar threatens to walk out of the council of ministers if the housing decree is not approved by Tuesday

MadridThe tension over housing is not only between the government and its partners in Congress, but it is also installed within the Council of Ministers itself. In a statement, Sumar threatened this Saturday to boycott Tuesday's executive meeting if the new housing decree-law is not approved. From the PSOE, meanwhile, they point out that the minister in charge, Isabel Rodríguez, is working against the clock precisely to do so, although they want to ensure that what is approved passes the filter of the Congress of Deputies. It would not be the first time, in any case, that Sumar boycotts a Council of Ministers: it already did so in the month of March, delaying its start by more than two hours, due to disagreements with the PSOE over the content of the anti-crisis decree following the war in Ukraine.

"This country needs a great agreement on housing that prevents any more Maricarmens from being evicted from their homes and that protects the hundreds of thousands of people who cannot make ends meet because of housing," asserted Sumar in a statement. In their view, the solutions involve "the protection of families against evictions and vulture funds, the regulation of speculative uses of housing such as tourist apartments and fraud in seasonal or room rentals, the recovery of Maricarmen's housing, and the automatic renewal of rental contracts." However, these demands must be reconciled with those put on the table by Junts to ensure that if a new housing decree-law is approved on Tuesday, the measures are validated in the Congress of Deputies.

As reported by ARA this Friday, the demands from Miriam Nogueras' party involve tax incentives for both tenants and landlords –such as a 15% income tax deduction and tax exemptions for those who sell their property to the administration to increase the public housing stock– and also placing limitations on vulture funds, such as preventing them from buying properties and preventing them from evicting vulnerable families from their properties. However, there is no consensus on the automatic extension of leases, which Junts wants to be voluntary, and on preventing all evictions in a general way. Junts requests that in the case of "small landlords" –the fine print to define the term is being finalized– evictions should be allowed to take place and that the administration should be the one to assume the housing alternative. The Ministry of Housing guarantees that they are working on "structural" measures, different from those that Congress has rejected so far, in order to gather the necessary consensus from Podemos, EH Bildu, Sumar, and ERC to Junts and the PNV.

While the Spanish government negotiates against the clock with its partners to try to push forward the housing decree, this Saturday Maricarmen Abascal herself demanded that the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, approve this decree on Tuesday to change "the unjust laws" that allowed her eviction. Through a video released by the Madrid Tenants' Union, Maricarmen Abascal requested this "first step" to end "this nonsense". "I want what happened to me to serve so that it does not happen to other people," she added.

Mobilization in the street

The pressure from the coalition's minority partner, Sumar, coincides with the mobilizations that are being organized by civil society to protest against the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whom a vulture fund threw out of the apartment where she had lived her entire life, and to demand measures to guarantee housing for everyone. This same Saturday in Madrid, at 18:30, there is a protest called at Plaza del Sol that will end at the Congress of Deputies to express indignation with the administrations, which they consider guilty: "This is not just about one Maricarmen. It is so that no one else is expelled from their home while some make a profit from a basic right".

This Friday it transpired that the vulture fund Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL submitted a proposal to the Madrid City Council so that the woman could return to her apartment. However, the council rejected it because it "does not meet the legal requirements" and has called a meeting for Monday with the representatives of Maricarmen Abascal and the fund that owns the apartment to mediate. Meanwhile, the woman yesterday made a call for mobilization from the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, where she was taken on the day of the eviction: "I have not managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others learn to fight for theirs".