The Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, has urged the population to mobilize and exert strong social pressure “by land, sea and air” so that the Congress of Deputies validates the extraordinary extension of rental contracts, included in the anti-crisis decrees promoted by the Government to cushion the consequences of the war in Iran.
“We have to pressure by land, sea, and air so that the right-wing parties cannot allow themselves to overturn this decree, on which depends the security, certainty, and well-being of millions of families in Spain,” he emphasized, in statements collected by Europa Press.
Bustinduy has stressed that the royal decree-law that includes the extension of rental contracts for an additional period of two years is already in force, after its approval in last week's Council of Ministers and its publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE), so affected people can start to request it.
Call to mobilization
In this regard, has encouraged all tenants in Spain whose contracts end before 2027 to avail themselves of this extension to shield their residential situation during that time.
“I hope that the social and citizen pressure is such that no parliamentary group can vote in favor of the speculators and of those who are throwing people out of their homes and against Spanish citizens,” he warned, after estimating at two million the people affected in the country and with the possibility of being evicted.
Although he has reiterated his willingness to “negotiate for as long as necessary” with Junts, the Popular Party and the rest of the groups in the Lower House, he has also stressed that those who oppose the measure will have to account to the citizenry and “will pay a high price for it”.
“If the right-wing parties think that this is a problem that does not affect their voters, they are mistaken,” he pointed out, stressing that the rental problem affects people with very diverse political sensibilities. He said this after meeting with residents of Madrid buildings belonging to the House of Alba, where, according to what he denounced, they would be trying to “throw out onto the street 75 families who in some cases have been living here for a very long time.”
“All political debate in Spain right now is about how we protect people from the effects of the catastrophic war, criminal, of the United States and Israel against Iran: what is more important than acting on the housing market?”, the minister questioned.
“The market is already intervened, but it is intervened by these actors large owners, speculators, who are forcing up rental prices and throwing families onto the street,” he concluded, before emphasizing: “This is what is going to be voted on in the Congress of Deputies.”