There were no surprises and, this time, yes, on the second try, the Congress validated the Government’s emergency plan for housing just a few hours after the general strike promoted by the unions of tenants. The decree-law contains a broad package of regulatory and tax measures to try to address the housing crisis.
In addition to temporary protection against evictions without an alternative, it extends by two years lease contracts, it includes the regulation of seasonal and room rentals, tax reductions in IRPF for owners who lower rents, raises VAT to 10% on tourist apartments, and restricts purchases by investment funds.
It was its repeal a little more than a month ago that triggered the early calling of elections by President Pedro Sánchez and, therefore, the dissolution of the Cortes. Days later, the Government rescued the decree-laws, which this Thursday have been examined
The Executive achieved its validation thanks to different arithmetic in the Permanent Deputy Council, a deliberative body with the Chamber in office, since there PP, Vox and Junts do not reach the absolute majority that overthrew the decree-laws in October.
The second decree-law did not go through, which enabled the indefinite extension of rental contracts with compensation for tenants in the event of termination. The PNV, which supported the decree-law with the bulk of the measures, rejected it because it was a measure not negotiated in advance.
And it is that the indefinite extension was a demand incorporated, even if in a separate decree-law, after pressure exerted by the tenants’ union in the mobilizations triggered after the eviction of Maricarmen, a 87-year-old woman from Madrid who died in the hospital days after being taken out of her home.
The debate, in any case, was steeped
"If today the Congress is going to take a position in favor, it will be thanks to the mobilization," Pablo Bustinduy, Minister of Social Rights and Consumer Affairs, said, who defended the failed indefinite renewal of the contracts.
Isabel Rodríguez, Minister of Housing, appealed to the vote in her intervention, assuring that the proposal by PP and Vox represents a "backward step," also in housing matters, with the return to "Spain of the 'pelotazo'". Rodríguez defended that housing is a right, not an investment asset.
"It has cost them to get here", ERC spokesperson Gabriel Rufián scolded the minister, recalling the PSOE’s resistance to take measures in this sense. Days before approving the decrees, he recalled, they rejected a proposal from his partner to ban the purchase of housing by vulture funds.
José María Figaredo, a Vox deputy, anticipated his party’s intention to push for social housing to avoid cases of homelessness, a calling that was harshly questioned by Minister Bustinduy. "Yes, with the chainsaw… !To another with that story!", he replied, after recalling his promise to repeal taxes on banks and on the wealthy, as well as commitments in military spending with the United States.