Sánchez does not find support for housing measures
The Spanish government postpones until September the approval of the decree that included the extension of rents
MadridPedro Sánchez is not finding support to move forward with the housing measures he announced almost a month ago. After weeks of tug-of-war with the investiture bloc partners, particularly with Junts, the Spanish government has decided to postpone the approval of the new housing decree until after the summer, which among other things was to include an extraordinary extension of rents until 2028, as reported by El País and confirmed by the Ministry of Housing.
The state executive's intention was to approve the decree in this Tuesday's cabinet meeting, coinciding with Pedro Sánchez's political year-end review. Ultimately, however, the decree's approval will not arrive until September, given the difficulty of securing the necessary votes in Congress for its validation, a scenario that would have led the Spanish government to suffer a parliamentary setback.
"The royal housing decree will be approved in September to culminate a broad and transversal agreement," indicate sources from the Ministry of Housing, led by Isabel Rodríguez (PSOE). "After weeks of intense negotiation, the Ministry of Housing reaffirms its commitment to a broad and transversal agreement to move forward with an ambitious package of measures that will provide stability to renters and boost the supply of affordable housing," they explain from this department, justifying the postponement of the approval by the fact that "it has been noted that haste in the calendar can be an obstacle to the agreement, given the complexity of the text."
Access to housing has become one of the main problems for citizens, and Pedro Sánchez has accumulated a list of promises to try to alleviate it. However, these precisely clash with the weakness felt in Congress, especially since Junts broke ties with the PSOE.
Although the Spanish government defends that Junts' demands had been taken into account, Carles Puigdemont's party does not see it the same way. Junts spokesperson, Josep Rius, stated at a press conference that the measures proposed by Moncloa "persisted in error" and called for a "change of course." "We have had a package of measures registered in Congress for months that are indeed working in Europe to get out of the bottom of the well: lowering taxes, deducting rent and mortgages [...] and truly investing in public housing," Junts sources indicated shortly after the decree's postponement was announced.
Despite the decree incorporating elements such as tax incentives for landlords, to try to win over Puigdemont's party, it also included proposals that were dropped months ago due to the negative votes of the PP, Vox, and also Junts, starting with the extraordinary extension of rental agreements. This was a demand from Sumar, the minority partner in the executive, which wanted the text to be approved again before the summer so that the "rent freeze" would become a reality as soon as possible.
Early this Monday, the congressman and spokesperson for Comuns, Gerardo Pisarello, expressed confidence that this would happen, acknowledging that although he did not like the idea of tax bonuses for landlords, it was the price to pay to find a consensus with the rest of the parties, referring to Junts. For their part, the minister and spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, assured that "no group has backed down from dialogue." "We are willing to give this time, but I also want to demand that we be as quick as possible," Urtasun indicated.
The Spanish government, therefore, is not giving up. In fact, it sees the housing package as a catalyst to kick off the academic year in September. Junts sources, on the other hand, are skeptical that they will actually present a text that convinces them.