The campers of Sol take the protest to Congress while the housing decrees are being debated.

As of today, October 2, 2026, Royal Decree-Laws 26/2026 and 27/2026 on housing have already been approved by the Council of Ministers and published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), so they are in force, but their parliamentary processing in the Congress has not yet formally begun: there is no record yet of the validation debate nor an associated parliamentary file (neither as a royal decree-law under validation nor as a derived bill).

1. Royal Decree-Law 26/2026 (social function and supply of affordable housing)

The Royal Decree-Law 26/2026, of September 29, is titled «Royal Decree-Law 26/2026, of September 29, adopting urgent measures for the protection of the social function of housing and the expansion of the supply of affordable housing». According to our database, which collects official records:

• It was approved as a royal decree-law by the Council of Ministers at the meeting at the end of September 2026, within the scope of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda.
• It was published in the Official State Gazette on September 30, 2026, with reference text in the BOE.
• There are executive precedents linked to the same area (agreements with SEPES/CASA 47 and a prior public hearing on subsidies for affordable housing), but these are steps in regulatory development, not parliamentary processing.

What is relevant to your question is that, as of today:

• There is no record yet of a file in the Congress of Deputies that includes the validation or repeal of this decree-law (there is not yet an initiative number of the type 130/00x associated with RDL 26/2026).
• Consequently, the vote on validation/repeal has not yet been registered, nor the agreement to process it as a bill.

From a procedural point of view, this means that RDL 26/2026 is at the stage where, after its publication in the BOE, the Government must submit it to the Congress for a general debate and validation vote within a maximum period of 30 days from its promulgation. The decree-law is fully in force, but its future (validation, repeal, or possible processing as a bill) will be decided in a Plenary session that, as of today, has not yet been held or formally processed.

2. Royal Decree-Law 27/2026 (stability of lease contracts)

The Royal Decree-Law 27/2026, of September 29, is titled «Royal Decree-Law 27/2026, of September 29, adopting urgent measures to reinforce the stability of lease contracts for primary residences». According to official records:

• It was approved as a royal decree-law by the Council of Ministers on September 29, 2026, within the scope of the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030.
• It was published in the BOE of October 1, 2026, with reference text in the BOE.

Regarding its parliamentary processing, the situation is parallel to that of RDL 26/2026:

• There is no record yet of a validation file in the Congress associated with RDL 27/2026; that is, it has not yet been assigned an initiative number nor loaded with a specific parliamentary schedule.
• Therefore, no validation or repeal vote has been registered, nor an agreement to process it as a bill.

As in the previous case, the decree-law is in force from its publication, but it is in the phase prior to parliamentary control: the Government must submit it to the Plenary of the Congress within the constitutional period of 30 days, where its validation or repeal will be decided and, if applicable, whether it will be processed as a bill by the ordinary or urgent procedure.

3. Overall conclusion on the processing

In summary, as of October 2, 2026:

• RDL 26/2026 and RDL 27/2026 are in the phase of post-publication in the BOE and pre-validation: they are in force, but without a parliamentary file yet opened in the Congress.
• There is no record of a Plenary session for validation/repeal having been held or registered, nor agreements on their possible processing as bills.
• In the coming weeks, the validation debate in the Congress must take place, the only proper parliamentary procedure still pending for both decree-laws.

For close monitoring, the next milestone to watch is the inclusion of each RDL on the agenda of a Plenary session of the Congress and the subsequent publication in the Official Gazette of the resolution of validation, rejection, and, if applicable, the opening of processing as a bill.

The competencies of the Congress of Deputies in the validation of decree-laws are fundamentally based on Article 86 of the Constitution and the Regulations of the Congress, particularly its Article 151, as well as the regime of the Permanent Deputation (Articles 57 et seq. of the Regulations). From these texts, a specific procedure is defined, with set deadlines and several possible decisions: validate, repeal, and, if applicable, agree to process as a bill.

1. Constitutional framework: Article 86 CE

Article 86 of the Constitution, according to the relevant excerpt consulted (Spanish Constitution), establishes that:

• The Government, in case of extraordinary and urgent necessity, may issue provisional legislative provisions with the rank of decree-law.
• These decree-laws must be “immediately submitted to debate and a vote on the entirety by the Congress of Deputies, convened for this purpose if not already in session, within thirty days following their promulgation”.
• The Congress “must expressly decide within that period on their validation or repeal”, for which the Regulations must establish a special and summary procedure.
• During that same period, the General Courts may process the decree-law as a bill by the urgent procedure.

Consequently, the Constitution assigns the Congress three essential functions: politically control the use of the decree-law, decide on its validity (validation or repeal), and, if deemed appropriate, open ordinary legislative processing on its content.

2. Regulatory development: Article 151 of the Regulations of the Congress

The Regulations of the Congress (published by Resolution of February 24, 1982, with successive reforms: regulatory text) develop this mandate in their Article 151 (“Control over Government provisions with the force of law”). According to the extracted text:

• The debate and vote on the validation or repeal of a royal decree-law is held in the Plenary of the Congress or in the Permanent Deputation, before thirty days have passed since its promulgation.
• Inclusion in the agenda can be done as soon as the decree-law has been published in the BOE; that is, the Congress has room to debate it as soon as there is official publicity of the text.
• The debate begins with the presentation by a Government member, who must explain the reasons for the “extraordinary and urgent necessity” and the political and technical motivation of the text. The subsequent debate follows the rules of general debates.
• After the debate, a vote is held, in which, according to Article 151.3, “affirmative votes shall be understood as favorable to validation and negative votes as favorable to repeal”. The Regulations do not require a specific qualified majority, so no reinforced majority different from ordinary Plenary votes is foreseen.
• If the decree-law is validated, the Presidency asks if any parliamentary group wishes it to be processed as a bill. If any group requests it, the request is submitted to the Chamber's decision; if it votes in favor, the text is processed as a bill by the urgent procedure, without allowing general return amendments.
• The validation or repeal agreement is published in the Official State Gazette, which provides publicity and legal certainty to the result of parliamentary control.

3. Role of the Permanent Deputation

The Regulations foresee that, at certain times, the Plenary may not be operational (for example, dissolution or expiration of the mandate). Article 57 indicates that the Permanent Deputation:

• Must “safeguard the powers of the Chamber when it is not in session”.
• During those periods, “assumes all the powers related to decree-laws attributed to the Congress of Deputies by Article 86 of the Constitution”.

Furthermore, Article 151 itself states that the Permanent Deputation may process decree-laws as bills by the urgent procedure that the Government issues between legislatures. That is, the control and possible transformation into law competence is maintained even when there is no constituted Plenary.

4. Summary of the Congress's competencies

• Reception and control of all decree-laws issued by the Government.
• Inclusion in the agenda and holding a general debate with Government intervention.
• Vote within a maximum period of thirty days from promulgation, with two mutually exclusive options:
  • Validate, maintaining the decree-law's validity.
  • Repeal, terminating its validity from the Congress's decision (without prejudice to effects already produced, which are resolved case by case).
• In case of validation, decide whether or not to open processing as a bill by urgency, allowing review, modification, or consolidation of its content through the ordinary legislative procedure.
• Functionally delegate these same powers to the Permanent Deputation when the Plenary cannot meet (dissolution or between legislatures).
• Publish in the BOE the validation or repeal agreement, closing parliamentary control over each decree-law.

In short, the Congress has a central and mandatory role in the validation of decree-laws, acting as an institutional check on the Government's use of this urgent legislative power.

For a royal decree-law issued by the Government to be validly validated by the Congress of Deputies, a series of material (what it can regulate and under what conditions) and procedural (how and with what majority the validation vote is held) requirements must be met simultaneously. These requirements mainly derive from Article 86 of the Spanish Constitution and the Regulations of the Congress.

1. Preliminary material requirements of the royal decree-law

The Congress can only validate a decree-law if, from the outset, it respects the constitutional limits of this figure:

• Situation of extraordinary and urgent necessity: the Government can only issue a royal decree-law when there is a situation requiring an immediate regulatory response that cannot wait for the ordinary legislative procedure. The motivation for that urgency must be explained in the preamble and the statement of reasons, and is later politically assessed by the Congress and, if applicable, legally by the Constitutional Court.
• Material limits (Art. 86 CE): the decree-law cannot affect:
  • The rights, duties, and freedoms of citizens regulated in Title I of the Constitution when an organic law is required.
  • The regime of the autonomous communities.
  • The general electoral regime.

  If it invades these matters or substantially alters them, the Constitutional Court may declare it unconstitutional, even if it has been validated.

• Competence of the State Government: only the national Government can approve royal decree-laws effective throughout the state territory. Autonomous governments use other figures (autonomous decree-laws, regulated in their statutes and in the Constitution through the Constitutional Court's doctrine).

If these material premises are not met, the decree-law is vulnerable to constitutional review, even if formally validated by the Congress.

2. Temporal and procedural requirements in the Congress

Besides being materially appropriate, the decree-law must follow a strict procedural channel:

• Maximum period of 30 days: once issued and published in the Official State Gazette, the royal decree-law must be debated and voted on by the Congress within a maximum of 30 days. This is a deadline for the Chamber to exercise its political control over the urgent norm.
• Convocation of the competent body: validation corresponds to the Plenary of the Congress. When the Chambers are not in session, the Permanent Deputation may assume this control and later report to the Plenary.
• General debate: the Regulations of the Congress provide for a specific validation debate. A Government member presents the reasons for extraordinary and urgent necessity and the content of the norm; then parliamentary groups intervene to state their position, and there may be rounds of replies.

The result of this debate is expressed in a single vote on the validation or repeal of the decree-law.

3. Majority required in the vote

The Constitution does not require a qualified majority. Therefore, the general rule of the Regulations of the Congress applies:

• The decree-law is validated if it obtains a simple majority: more affirmative than negative votes among the deputies present (abstentions are not counted for the majority).
• If the votes against exceed those in favor, the Congress agrees its repeal and the decree-law loses validity from that moment, without prejudice to effects already produced and what may be decided about them by another law.

From a legal point of view, validation means the decree-law maintains its validity as a norm with the rank of law; repeal means its cessation, although the content may later be included in another law approved by the ordinary procedure.

4. Decision on processing as a bill

Besides voting on validation, the Congress may, in the same act or immediately after, adopt another relevant decision:

• Agree to process the royal decree-law as a bill. This option:
  • Allows groups to present amendments to the validated text.
  • Opens a complete parliamentary procedure, usually by the urgent procedure, with committee stage and, if applicable, Senate consideration.
• If the Congress does not decide to process it as a bill, the validated decree-law text becomes final in the terms approved by the Government, without possibility of subsequent parliamentary modifications on that same instrument.

5. Role of constitutional control

Even with all these requirements met, parliamentary validation does not shield the decree-law from the Constitutional Court. It may examine, at the request of those entitled (e.g., parliamentary groups or autonomous governments):

• Whether there really was an extraordinary and urgent necessity.
• Whether the material limits were respected (no impact on forbidden matters).
• Whether the decree-law was used proportionally and adequately to the pursued urgency purpose.

In summary, for a decree-law to be validated, there must be: correct use of the figure (urgency and permitted matters), processing in the Congress within 30 days with a specific debate, and finally a favorable simple majority vote. All this is ultimately subject to possible review by the Constitutional Court.