Congress has rejected the first decree with measures on housing that the Government approved last Tuesday. The norm has fallen with 172 yeses and 178 noes. The surprise intervention of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who has asked the deputies to "think about the people", nor the calls of the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, to remind Puigdemont's party that 90% of their proposals appeared in the decrees, which are no longer in force, have been of no use. Rodríguez has also offered to process them as bills to include “technical clarifications or corrections.” Despite the PSOE's claim that the decrees “work” because they have already prevented evictions, Junts has justified, like the PP or Vox, that “they allow the funds to continue buying, continue speculating and continue to evict people.” The PSOE has reproached them for "voting against because among their clientele are speculators and vulture funds." Given the rejection, the debate grows over whether the defeat of the Government will lead to an early election. The first Sunday available is November 29.
The Congressional chamber has remained silent when the president of the chamber, Francina Armengol, has announced that the first real secret has not been validated. The ministers Mónica García and Pablo Bustinduy, who have the PP bench and part of the Vox bench behind them, have turned around urging the deputies of those parties to applaud the result. The PP and Vox ended up applauding without enthusiasm and for a few seconds the fall of the decree, while Macarena Montesinos and other PP deputies exchanged reproaches with the ministers. A woman in the public gallery has been expelled after calling the deputies who have overturned the housing measures “scoundrels.”
Hundreds of people gathered in front of Congress have risen up amid cries of “shame” and “general strike” when the result of the vote was known. “Their benefits, our misery,” they shout and assure that they will continue fighting. “Fight is the only way,” they exclaim.
Pedro Sánchez has decided to speak at the end of the debate, just minutes before the vote on the two housing decrees, and has recognized their scope: "It is evident that their measures are not going to solve all the housing problems by themselves, they are not going to do so, but it is undeniable that they will help mitigate them." He then called the deputies' attention by assuring that "this time the fault will not lie with the troika, nor the banks, it will lie with those who vote not from their seats." More specifically, addressing the deputies of PP and Junts, he asked them to live up to what citizens are asking for and "do the right thing because history will judge them sooner than they believe and with more force than they imagine."
The PP deputy Sergio Sayas has brought to Congress the cases of corruption that affect the PSOE to respond to the second housing decree. "Today, renting an apartment in any provincial capital of Spain is at record prices. Today, buying a home for millions of Spaniards is an impossible mission. They have made vulnerable the middle classes who had no problem making ends meet and who today live suffocated," said Sayas during his speech.
The socialist deputy Montse Mínguez has indicated to the PP that it has “two opportunities to demonstrate that it is with the housing policy of this country.” During the debate on the second decree promoted by the Government, the PSOE leader criticized the actions of the popular party this Friday in the Congress of Deputies and, specifically, the intervention of deputy Juan Bravo.
Vox spokesperson, José María Figaredo, criticized the Government of Pedro Sánchez and his partners during his appearance on the second housing decree: "All aspects that support the well-being of Spaniards have worsened since the Government took office. You: PSOE, Sumar, Podemos."
Sumar deputy Alberto Ibáñez has defended his party's favorable vote for the decree containing the automatic renewal of rents and has criticized PP and Vox for voting against it. "They say indefinite rent is scary. Would you imagine that it would be okay in this country to fire for free a journalist who does her job well and who goes to work simply so that another younger journalist can come in and get paid less? For the majority, right? Well, this is what defends indefinite rent."
Oskar Matute, from EH Bildu, stressed this Friday during his second intervention in Congress that with the measures promoted by the Government in terms of housing “the small owner is not attacked.” “The business is regulated,” he stressed, while asking the parties that have announced their “no” to “not try to deceive citizens.”
