Surprisingly, Pedro Sánchez was the last speaker to speak before the vote. “I ask you to think of the people, the ordinary people, who most urgently need the protection of the public purse,” he appealed to MPs. But they were not impressed; 178 of the 350 rejected the decree with which the left-wing minority government wanted to combat forced evictions and housing shortages. The separatist Junts party from Catalonia voted against it. For the socialist Sánchez, the failure means a particularly serious defeat that could result in early elections.
Even before the debate began, there was talk from those around the head of government that Sánchez could, in response, bring forward the parliamentary elections, which must take place regularly by next summer. The earliest a new election could take place is November 29th. According to surveys, his coalition with the left-wing Sumar party has no chance against the conservative People's Party (PP) and the right-wing populist Vox party - the last left-wing government in a large EU state would fall.
There was speculation in Madrid that the left-wing coalition could be banking on the anger of the many Spanish tenants who can no longer afford the expensive rents and were hoping for more legal security from the reform. Demonstrators have already set up a large protest camp in the square at Puerta del Sol; On Friday they marched in front of the parliament building, which was guarded by hundreds of police officers. Demonstrations have been announced across the country for the weekend; there are calls for a general strike. The protests began after 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was forced to leave her apartment in Madrid, where she had lived for decades, due to an eviction.
“A decision for the people or for the vultures”
In the parliamentary debate on Friday, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez sharply attacked the opposition and outlined the direction of a possible election campaign. The conservative People's Party PP is “the worst right-wing party in all of Europe”. The vote was a decision “for the people or for the vultures,” said Rodríguez, referring to greedy real estate funds. The right-wing parties are abandoning people in their housing crisis, while the left is fighting speculation and preventing people like Maricarmen Abascal from being evicted from their homes.
“Neither the tenants nor the mortgage customers trapped by the banks will forget this betrayal of the people,” Sumar’s party threatened on Friday.
Decrees against evictions and fixed-term tenancies
According to the decree, there should be no evictions by 2030 for tenants without alternative housing, as well as for the elderly, families with children and people with health problems. With a few exceptions, real estate funds should be prohibited from purchasing additional apartments until 2028. Landlords who hold back on rent increases should receive tax advantages. Short-term rentals should be limited to one month and subject to ten percent VAT.
A second decree, championed by Sumar, would introduce permanent leases. In contrast to Germany, Spanish rental contracts are limited to five or seven years. After that, landlords can evict them or increase the rent virtually at will. According to the second decree, landlords would have to give valid reasons if they do not extend the contract in the future. Otherwise, they must compensate the tenant with at least 12 months' rent. The left-wing Podemos party, with which Sánchez formed a coalition until 2023, is calling for the expropriation of 650,000 apartments that currently belong to funds or large investors. She wants to convert these apartments into social housing.
Junts party fears the decrees will make matters worse
The housing minister said that "precisions or technical corrections are possible" later on in a bill that has been confirmed by parliament, as some factions have demanded, and was particularly addressing the Junts party. But the Catalan separatists under the leadership of Carles Puigdemont had already announced on Thursday evening that they would reject both housing policy decrees that the government had hastily adopted on Tuesday. Junts demanded that the two decrees be withdrawn and renegotiated. The government had hoped that Junts would abstain.
The Junts party, which only has seven of the 350 MPs, believes the decrees will have the “opposite effect”: they would reduce the supply of affordable rental housing, drive up prices and fail to adequately protect small landlords. Similar criticism had also come from the Basque PNV party, which, however, as announced, supported the first decree - "out of responsibility", albeit with criticism; but not the second decree. Its failure had already become apparent before the debate began. In the end, only 166 of the 350 parliamentarians voted in favor.
The left-wing minority government decided on the emergency housing policy measures after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal's apartment hectically and after a heated argument. The junior partner Sumar has wanted to push tenant protection further than Pedro Sánchez's socialists for years. In the spring, after the outbreak of the Iran War, a decree that was supposed to introduce a cap on rent increases and the automatic extension of rental contracts that expire in 2027 failed. At that time, Junts voted against it. Sánchez does not have a majority in parliament among his former supporters. Since 2023, he has not brought a single state budget through parliament.
With the hastily drafted “Maricarmen” decrees, the left-wing coalition hoped to regain ground with its voters. “Ni una Maricarmen más” (No more Maricarmen), many demonstrators have been shouting for a week. After long negotiations, Maricarmen Abascal is allowed to return to her apartment near Retiro Park, but thousands more are threatened with evictions in Spain; The average was recently more than 40 per day.
