The presidency of Congress, by virtue of the provisions of article 69 of the Regulations, has urgently sent the text of the decrees to the parliamentary spokespersons, including the one that has not yet been published in the BOE, and which will be debated and voted on Friday in the Plenary starting at 11:00 am. The aforementioned article of the Regulation establishes that "no debate may begin without the prior distribution, to all the members of the Chamber with the right to participate in the Plenary Session or in the commission, where appropriate, at least forty-eight hours in advance, of the report, opinion or documentation that must serve as a basis for it."
Francina Armengol thus saves the holding of the Plenary Session, with debate and voting, which the Government has asked to convene in an extraordinary manner on Friday to validate its housing measures. If the second decree had not been officially known by the parliamentary formations until its publication in the BOE tomorrow, it could not be voted on in the extra session planned by the Executive.
In fact, practically all parliamentary groups have criticized the Government's maneuver of "cutting" the decree on housing measures into two. Some, like Podemos, have openly described it as a "trap" and have demanded that the Executive "withdraw" the first decree and send a "complete" one to the Chamber.
The PP, through its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has also accused the Government of "cheating." "This exceeds all limits," he told reporters after learning of the text of the second decree, because in his opinion, both documents "contradict each other" and "are incompatible." Feijóo has announced his group's vote against both texts. "We are not going to support this cheating Government. This is a lack of ethics and respect for deputies and citizens." The leader of the PP has predicted that if the measures planned by the Executive end up being approved "the vulnerable will not have any opportunity" to access a rental because no owner will accept them. "I feel cheated," he stressed before adding that "people can't be fooled."
From Junts, Marta Madrena has also complained about the Government's "lack of rigor" when it comes to legislating and has reproached the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, for not knowing "what she approves." "The Spanish Government's cocoa has been transferred to the housing decrees," he said. Junts has also harshly criticized the splitting of the measures into two decrees, one of which had not even been sent by the Government to the groups.
For her part, the spokesperson for the PNV, Maribel Vaquero, has regretted that the Government intends to solve a problem as serious as housing through decrees. Vaquero has asked for "more carrot and less stick" and has warned that with the rules that are intended to be validated on Friday the situation will not be fixed. The Basque nationalist deputy has insisted that "abuse must end and vulnerable people must be protected, but without turning the small owner into the enemy." He has also advocated "giving security to tenants and landlords; expanding the usual rent; building more social and affordable housing; limiting speculation; regulating seasonal rentals; limiting tourist apartments and adopting fiscal measures."
Podemos also stood up against the Government's maneuver of trying to approve two decrees, the first already published in the BOE and which includes proposals from Junts and the PNV, and the second, which will be published tomorrow, and which includes Sumar's demands.
The general secretary of the purple party, Ione Belarra, has confronted the first vice president of the Government, Carlos Body, in the control session in Congress, warning him that on this occasion the strategy "is not going to work." Belarra has accused the Executive of "cheating" by "cutting up the decree" with the aim of silencing social protest. The Podemos deputy has demanded that the Government "withdraw" the first decree that it has already published in the Official State Gazette and send a "complete" one to Congress.
"If you don't do it for love, at least do it for electoral interest," the leader of the purples in the Chamber snapped. To this, the first vice president has responded by stringing together the most substantial measures included in the first decree and has urged the parliamentary formations to "start on Friday" to solve the problems by voting in favor of the validation of the rules designed by the Executive.
After this intervention, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has accused the Popular Party of being "on the side of soulless speculators." The minister has spoken this way in response to the intervention of the popular deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo who has reproached the Government for its "use" of the eviction of an elderly woman and the Puerta del Sol mobilizations that she has defined as the "15 meme." The PP has also criticized the Executive's decision to divide the housing measures into two decrees and, in addition, take them with utmost urgency to validation in an extraordinary plenary session this Friday.
