Spain housing decrees fail as Sánchez faces protest and early poll talk

Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS

Spain’s progressive government suffered a major setback on Friday after lawmakers rejected two emergency decrees aimed at addressing the country’s housing affordability crisis. The defeat came as protesters gathered outside Parliament to demand help for renters, and Spanish media speculated that Prime Minister Pedro Snchez could consider calling an early election instead of waiting until next year. His office did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press on the possibility of a snap poll.

After a five-hour debate, Snchez made a final appeal to the 349-member chamber to back the measures, calling them “necessary”. “What is behind these decrees is the desire to instill order and a sense of humanity in a market that if we do not rein it in will destroy our society,” he said. He ended with a warning: “Do the right thing, or history will judge you, and sooner than you think.” The appeal failed, as the Catalan separatist party Junts voted against both decrees, joining the centre-right Popular Party and the far-right Vox.

The first rejected decree included measures that the government said would stop evictions of vulnerable people, make real estate speculation harder and offer tax incentives to encourage renting. The second sought to make residential leases automatically renewable by tenants. The votes were loudly jeered by protesters nearby, while people in the public gallery shouted, “Vulture funds govern the congress!”

The decrees were meant to calm public anger after the televised eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid last week. The eviction sparked protests and a camp-in at the city’s main square that has continued since then. Outside Parliament, demonstrators held homemade signs showing vultures, accusing property speculators of pushing up housing costs. Protester Carla Cremonte, a 34-year-old office worker, said right-wing parties had united to “vote against the interests of the majority of people who are here, of the workers of Spain”. She added, “I don’t know what might happen, whether elections will be called, but in the streets we will continue fighting and the atmosphere is one of a general strike.” The renters’ association Sindicato de Inquilinas said it was calling fresh protests on Saturday and pushing for a general strike.

Housing costs have risen sharply in Spain. According to property website Idealista, the average rent has almost doubled over the past 10 years, with the average price per square metre rising from 8.20 euros in 2016 to 15.1 euros this year. Abascal has become a symbol of the struggle for lower housing costs in a country where many people cannot afford to buy a home and are being squeezed by a small rental market. The company that evicted her later reversed course under public and political pressure and said she could return to the flat. Abascal is in hospital after being removed from her home on a stretcher, but her lawyer said she was happy to know she would be going back.

The vote also exposed the government’s fragile alliances. Junts is one of the smaller parties Snchez relied on to form a new government in 2023, but it has remained a difficult partner. Its leader, Carles Puigdemont, has been living in Belgium since leaving Spain after leading Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence push. Housing Minister Isabel Rodrguez appealed directly to Junts, saying from the lectern, “incorporated 90% of your proposals. Vote for the decrees or at least abstain.” But Junts leader Mriam Nogueras said the decrees would prompt owners to withdraw homes from the rental market and push prices even higher. “These decrees still allow speculators to buy property and to evict people,” she said. Junts asked the government to negotiate amendments, but the government refused.

The centre-right Basque party and Coalición Canaria, whose backing the government also needed, voted against the second decree after supporting the first. Both said the government had acted too hastily by using decrees instead of building support through legislation with other parties. Popular Party leader Juan Bravo told Rodrguez, “This is not a failure of all of us. This is your failure and that of Snchez’s entire government.” With the measures defeated, it remains unclear whether the government will try again with fresh legislation or move towards an election.

With PTI Inputs

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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA