Junts per Catalunya refuses to validate the two housing decrees that the Government will take to the Congress of Deputies this Friday. Dry setback for the Executive. The Catalan independence party has been internally evaluating what position it adopted in a matter that is considered highly sensitive material and has made the outcome public late this Thursday night. In training it is assumed that positioning will have consequences. “We are not afraid of burning ourselves to continue defending the interests of Catalan families,” the Junts spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, had advanced.
Once again on October 1, nine years after the attempted independence referendum, Carles Puigdemont had in his hand a decision capable of marking a turning point in Spanish politics. Junts' decision has been made public after a telematic meeting of its executive, called urgently this Thursday by the general secretary Jordi Turull. The pro-independence formation had shielded itself throughout the day, so as not to give any clue as to what the meaning of its vote was going to be. When consulting party sources, it emerged that one of the extremes that generated the most reluctance was the idea that the decrees are nothing more than a “patch” on an issue, housing, which is critical.
“It is a very delicate issue because, depending on what is approved, the market can be reduced even further and prices increased further,” pointed out a position very close to the Junts parliamentary group in Congress. The same voice insisted on questioning the practical usefulness of the decrees to resolve the root causes of the housing problem, and warned that if they missed the mark in this sense they were giving wings to far-right forces such as Aliança Catalana and Vox "because people see how political short-termism has taken away the society they had."
Junts highlights that interventionist measures on the market achieve a lot of window dressing, but generate little profit. Above all, in the eyes of his most conservative electorate. The heir party of Convergència tries to pamper the interests of its average voter, identified as the Catalan upper-middle class and who has traditionally seen the real estate market as an asset from which to earn generous returns.
Junts does not hide that it has always put “protecting the small owner” as a priority. In this sense, within the team of deputies led by Míriam Nogueras, a debate has flourished around the conviction that, whoever owns a home, "displeases that someone from outside imposes on them what they can do with it and what they cannot do."
The president of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, pending being able to benefit from the full deployment of the amnesty law starting Tuesday, which opens the door to his return to Spain, wrote a text last week on social networks, seeking to provide an analysis on housing. Puigdemont criticized those who prefer “slogans before speech.”
On Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the two royal decrees on housing, with the expectation that this Friday they could be validated in Congress. The Government appears to be used to living on the fence and assumes that every time it needs support it has to sweat it. Despite everything, President Pedro Sánchez announced on Wednesday that he felt “reasonably optimistic” about the validation.
After the outbreak of a storm of tension over the Maricarmen case, the activation of a regulatory framework to help alleviate the problem of access to housing has been presented as a pressing issue for the Executive. With the end of the legislature looming over his head, Sánchez tries to shake off the stress by being able to show off a list with some homework done.
The announcement by Podemos, first, by the PNV, then, and also by the Canarian Coalition, anticipating that they were going to allow the approval of at least one of the Executive decrees, which vetoes the purchase of real estate from vulture funds and extends until 2030 the ban on evictions of vulnerable people, focused all eyes on the Junts balance.
Ione Belarra, general secretary of Podemos, during an interview on TVE has even referred to the decrees as “crumbs.” Despite this, he wanted to make his position clear: “We are going to vote yes,” he added. The PNV, for its part, speaks of “critical” support for the housing decree because it is still “a specific patch, with many shortcomings,” but protection is observed for vulnerable people and the situation of small property owners improves.
For its part, the Catalan independence party has tried to pretend that it was oblivious to any emergencies that the Government may have. "We are used to it. Another one," a Junts source summarized this Thursday when wondering if the growing expectation placed on his decision could condition the final verdict.
