We can vote in favor of the two housing decrees that will face the examination of Congress on Friday.

As of October 1, 2026, the two new housing royal decree-laws approved by the Council of Ministers on September 29 are in force but still pending the decision of the Congress. Their parliamentary processing is in an initial control phase: both must be ratified or repealed in an extraordinary plenary session scheduled for Friday, October 2, and no vote has yet been held.

1. What are the two royal decree-laws and at what stage are they

According to Moncloa and parliamentary reports, these are two distinct and complementary regulations:

• A royal decree-law of “urgent measures for the protection of the social function of housing and the expansion of affordable housing supply”, which includes the extension of the “social shield” against evictions until 2030, regulation of seasonal and room rentals, limits on the purchase of homes by certain investment funds, and various tax incentives for affordable housing (Housing press release and full text at Demócrata).
• A second royal decree-law focused on the automatic renewal of rental contracts for primary residences, which extends contract durations in certain cases and provides compensation to tenants when the owner decides not to renew. Its content has been circulated in draft form while awaiting publication in the BOE (text preview).

According to Demócrata, the BOE has so far only published the first of the two texts, Royal Decree-law 26/2026, of September 29, on the protection of the social function and affordable housing; the second was to be published on October 1.
In any case, legally both are considered approved by the Government and sent to Congress, pending ratification.

2. Common parliamentary phase for both decrees

According to Article 86 of the Constitution, a royal decree-law comes into force upon publication, but loses validity if Congress does not ratify it within a maximum period of 30 days. The decision is made by simple majority (more yes than no votes), and the Chamber may also decide to process the text later as a bill, opening an amendment phase.

In this case, Congress has called an extraordinary and urgent plenary session for Friday, October 2 to debate and vote separately on the two housing decrees (Demócrata information and other matching reports). Until that plenary session takes place and the voting results are known, the parliamentary processing is:

• Open, with no ratification or repeal agreed.
• Limited to the ratification phase in Congress; it has not yet been decided whether they will be processed later as bills.
• With both texts formally in force, but their continuity conditioned on the plenary outcome.

3. Political situation and possible outcomes

Parliamentary analysis articles agree that the first decree (evictions, vulture funds, seasonal rentals, tax incentives) reaches Congress with a higher probability of being ratified. The Government trusts in adding its usual partners and parties like Junts and PNV, which have influenced the design of measures to protect small owners and concentrate restrictions on large funds (vote “betting pool” at Demócrata).

The second decree, on automatic renewal of rental contracts, faces more resistance among some investiture partners and could have a narrower or even different majority than the first. That is why the package has been split into two texts, allowing Congress to:

• Ratify both decrees;
• Only ratify one of them (the other would be repealed);
• Or repeal both, which would cause the entire set of measures to lapse.

4. Summary

In summary, as of October 1, 2026, the parliamentary processing of the two new housing royal decree-laws has not yet been closed. They are:

• In force after approval by the Council of Ministers and publication (at least of the first) in the BOE.
• Pending the ratification or repeal vote in the extraordinary plenary session on October 2 in Congress.
• No decision yet on their possible subsequent processing as bills.

Until that plenary session takes place and the result is known, the status of the processing is, therefore, awaiting ratification in the Congress of Deputies.

Ione Belarra Urteaga has been the secretary general of Podemos since June 2021, when she took over the party leadership following Pablo Iglesias's departure, and was reconfirmed at the V Citizen Assembly in April 2025 with around 90 % of the votes from registered participants. Her role as a leader combines the organic direction of Podemos with an intense institutional trajectory in Congress and the Government of Spain.

Competencies and functions as secretary general of Podemos

According to the division of roles described in party and press sources, the secretary general of Podemos is the highest personal executive body within the organization, with central functions in three areas: political direction, internal management, and public projection.

• Strategic direction and discourse: sets the general political line of the party. In Belarra's case, this has translated into a very defined discourse on housing (intervention in the rental market, criticism of the “cosmetic” nature of the housing decrees) and on social policies and the 2030 Agenda, continuing the focus she already had as minister and secretary of state.
• Organization coordination: the secretary general promotes and supervises collective bodies, especially the State Citizen Council, where she maintains a core group of allies including figures like Irene Montero and heads of organization, spokespersons, and regional leaderships. She also oversees the renewal of territorial leaderships through primaries, as explicitly shown in the case of Podemos Andalusia.
• Internal processes and primaries: leads and organizes the processes of citizen assemblies and candidate selection. News places her as the figure who activates and guides the primaries for the 2027 regional and municipal elections, and who decides to personally lead the list in the Community of Madrid.
• Relations with other actors: acts as the main voice of Podemos in defining the relationship with the PSOE and with the Sumar space and other left-wing forces. From the secretary general position, she has defended an “autonomous and brave left” that does not support the PSOE “at any cost,” and has taken critical stances against Yolanda Díaz's project or agreements with Junts on immigration matters.
• Institutional representation of the party: as organic leader and deputy, she is Podemos's reference in Congress, intervenes in key debates (military spending, war, housing, international relations), and represents the organization before the Government and other groups.

Previous and parallel political trajectory to leadership

Before becoming secretary general, Belarra joined Podemos's leadership in 2014, in the State Citizen Council, heading the area of Human Rights, Citizenship, and Diversity. Since 2015 she has been a deputy in several legislatures, first for Navarra and, in the XV Legislature, for Madrid, with a prominent role as deputy spokesperson and member of the Permanent Deputation and commissions such as Equality and Social Rights.

In the Executive, her trajectory focuses on social policies: she was secretary of state for the 2030 Agenda between January 2020 and March 2021 and later minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda between 2021 and 2023, responsible for promoting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and measures to protect against poverty and inequality.

Internal leadership, reelection, and political lines

Belarra was elected secretary general at the 2021 assembly, in a context of leadership change following Iglesias's withdrawal and a reduction in Podemos's electoral weight. Press sources note that her mandate has been characterized by maintaining an ideological line of continuity with the founding core, but in a smaller party with less institutional presence.

In April 2025, the bases ratified her as leader with nearly 90 % of the votes cast at the V Citizen Assembly, although with a sharp drop in participation compared to the previous congress. Her list again controls the State Citizen Council, strengthening the tandem with Irene Montero, who becomes the electoral reference for future general elections.

Among the political lines promoted from the secretary general's office are:

• A commitment to the social and housing agenda as the central axis of the project, demanding more ambitious measures (expropriation of homes from investment funds, strict rental limits, protection against evictions).
• A pacifist and anti-rearmament stance, with criticism of increased military spending and the “war regime,” and calls for mobilizations against war and government decisions in foreign policy.
• The defense of human rights, feminism, and equality, both internally (strengthening female leadership at the top) and in her public discourse, including the LGBTI field and denunciation of hate and institutional racism.
• A strategy of maximum differentiation from the PSOE and Sumar, presenting Podemos as the “truly transformative” left willing to bear costs to maintain principled positions on housing, peace, or social rights.

Overall, Ione Belarra's competencies as secretary general have been exercised with a highly personalized leadership over a shrinking organization, with strong programmatic emphasis on housing, social rights, and peace, and with a political confrontation style that seeks to preserve Podemos's identity in a fragmented and competitive left-wing space.

The ratification of a royal decree-law by Congress is the moment when an urgent Government regulation gains parliamentary stability. For that ratification to be legally valid, a series of material requirements (about the content and the situation to be addressed) and formal or procedural requirements (about who issues it, how it is processed, and with what majority it is approved) must be met.

1. Prior material requirements (art. 86 CE)

• Extraordinary and urgent necessity: the essential enabling premise is that there is a situation requiring an immediate regulatory response that cannot wait for the ordinary legislative procedure. The Government must justify this urgency in the statement of reasons and during the ratification debate.
• Connection of purpose: the measures adopted must have a reasonable relation to the invoked extraordinary and urgent necessity; any content exploiting the urgency route is not enough.
• Material limits: the royal decree-law cannot affect:
  • The organization of the basic State institutions.
  • The rights, duties, and freedoms of citizens regulated in Title I of the Constitution.
  • The regime of the autonomous communities.
  • The general electoral law.
  If it invades these areas, it risks unconstitutionality and, ultimately, annulment by the Constitutional Court, even if ratified.

2. Formal requirements of adoption and validity

• Competent body: the royal decree-law must be approved by the Government in Council of Ministers. Only the Government can use this instrument; not the Cortes or other bodies.
• Sanction, promulgation, and publication: like laws, the text must be sanctioned and promulgated by the King and published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). Validity is usually immediate from publication, although a later date may be set.
• Provisional nature: its validity is conditioned on subsequent parliamentary control. Without ratification (or if expressly repealed) it ceases to have effect, with nuances that the Constitutional Court may later add regarding already consolidated situations.

3. Requirements of the ratification procedure in Congress

• Maximum 30-day period: article 86 CE requires that the royal decree-law be submitted immediately to Congress and that it be debated and voted on within a 30-day period from its promulgation. If the Chambers are dissolved or their mandate has expired, the Permanent Deputation acts, which can ratify or repeal and, if applicable, transfer its decision to the new Congress.
• Full debate and summary procedure: the Congress Rules establish a specific ratification debate, qualified as a “full debate”:
  • Initial intervention by the Government member defending the decree-law.
  • Possible turns in favor and against by parliamentary groups.
  • Reply and counter-reply, as set by the Presidency.
  • Final vote on ratification or repeal.
• Type of majority: ratification requires a simple majority in Congress (more votes in favor than against of the deputies present). Absolute or qualified majority is not required.
• Express pronouncement: Congress must expressly decide within the period on:
  • Ratifying the royal decree-law, whereby the norm remains in force.
  • Repealing it, in which case it ceases to be valid.
  Failure to decide within the period would be contrary to the constitutional mandate, so in practice a debate is always scheduled.

4. Processing as a bill

Besides deciding on ratification, Congress has an important additional power:

• Once the royal decree-law is ratified, the Presidency asks in Plenary if any parliamentary group requests that it be processed as a bill.
• If at least one group requests it, the request is put to a vote. If the Chamber agrees, the decree-law text proceeds as a bill under the urgent procedure.
• In that processing, amendments to the articles are possible, but total return amendments are not allowed, because the core decision (to maintain or not the norm) has already been made in the ratification.

In summary, for a royal decree-law to be validly ratified, it must respond to a situation of extraordinary and urgent necessity, respect constitutional material limits, have been properly approved by the Government and published in the BOE, and Congress must, within a maximum 30-day period, after a specific debate, approve it by simple majority (and, if applicable, decide whether to convert it into a bill to allow modification through amendments).