The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, faces "moderate optimism" regarding the voting on the two housing decrees that the Government has approved this week and that must be validated by Congress. "I hope that Podemos says yes, because their spokesperson said they would be very attentive to what the Tenants' Union did," she pointed out this Thursday on Cadena SER.
Rodríguez has acknowledged that the Executive continues to negotiate to expand parliamentary support. "The text cannot please everyone. We are working with Junts," the minister stated, referring to the conversations aimed at securing the backing of the Catalan party. At all times - until the interviewer mentioned it - she referred to only one text, implicitly suggesting that the second of them, the one that extends rental contracts up to two years, has few chances of moving forward.
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Rodríguez has also referred to the taxation of tourist apartments. The minister has stated that she advocated applying a 21% VAT to them, but that ultimately the measure did not go ahead. "I wanted tourist apartments to have a 21% VAT, but one party has refused to do so," she declared. The minister defended the content of the two regulations and maintained that they will have a positive overall effect. "Everything that is within this regulation is good for 100% of Spaniards," she affirmed during the interview.
The two decrees are part of the Government's response to the housing market situation and arrive at Congress in a parliamentary scenario where not all the necessary supports for their validation are yet secured.