It was predictable and it happened. Again, a negotiation carried out until the last minute. The Council of Ministers plans to approve this Tuesday the so-called Maricarmen decree, a package of measures regarding Housing after the eviction of the 87-year-old woman and the social mobilization, with campaigns in different cities in Spain, put pressure on the parties to reach an agreement. However, differences in the wording of the final text between the PSOE and Sumar have caused the cabinet meeting, scheduled for 9:30 a.m., to delay its start by one hour, until 10:33 a.m.
At first, Sumar's ministers did not join the meeting, as described by this sector of the Government, and finally around 10:50 a.m. they attended after concluding an agreement between the two parties. The blockade has been saved with the approval of two decrees, the path decided to avoid the fiasco of not reaching an agreement between the partners themselves.
Government sources explain that the parties that make up the coalition have sealed an agreement "to approve housing measures and respond to citizens' demands and advance rights."
Both formations have been negotiating in extremis. Among the points of friction was the duration of the extension of rental contracts, which in the PSOE proposal is set at two years, while Sumar now intends for it to be indefinite, as required by the Tenants' Union. Another issue up for debate has been the regulation of room rentals. Sumar denounces that this practice, which was left out of the regulation of the Housing Law, today constitutes "one of the main entry routes for speculation and abuse in the rental market."
The automatic extension of rents is required by the Tenants' Union, which states that if a tenant complies with the installments of their contract, it will be extended indefinitely in time and for the same price without the landlord being able to evict them unless there is a justified and real cause. It would be the way - its promoters define - to give guarantees and stability to tenants and ensure that renovations are not an open door to being expelled or suffering a wild increase in price.
"Seasonal rentals must be regulated, since it is going beyond the rules of the game. We are not going to endorse a royal decree that is left halfway. We are creating an insurmountable failure. People cannot save, they cannot buy. And it is time to take a step also from the right, which has been supporting the vulture funds," Mónica García (Sumar), Minister of Health, pointed out this morning in different interviews.
"What we propose is to push this Government so that the progressive surname is not only a surname, but a reality in the main problem of the country, that of housing," said the Minister of Sumar.
One of the issues that does gather consensus is the proposal relating to the suspension of evictions of vulnerable people without a housing alternative. First, the prohibition is established until December 31, 2028. Second, it is established that the eviction order will be paralyzed when it comes from a vulture fund and affects a vulnerable person and has no housing alternative. "The court will suspend the process by order."
