Spain's government set to lose key vote in Parliament to ratify emergency housing measures

MADRID — Spain's government looks set to lose two key votes it needs to ratify a package of emergency measures aimed at tackling the nation's housing affordability crisis when lawmakers convened on Friday, while protesters march on the Parliament demanding help for renters.

The Catalan separatist party Junts — essential for the approval of the two government decrees — said in a statement Friday morning that it will vote against them. That appears to have doomed the measures when combined with the “No" from the center-right Popular Party and far-right Vox.

The likely defeat sparked speculation in Spanish media that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez could consider bringing forward elections from next year. Sánchez didn't speak when he arrived at the chamber in downtown Madrid. His office did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press regarding a possible snap election.

The government decrees were intended to quell a public uproar following the televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman last week in Madrid that sparked protests and a camp-in that has occupied Madrid's most important square ever since. Barring a surprise, the progressive coalition of Sánchez will suffer a costly legislative defeat that will likely fan the flames of the protests.

Outside the parliament, protesters held up homemade signs with images of vultures on them, denouncing the real estate speculators they blame for driving up prices.

Protester Carla Cremonte, a 34-year-old office worker, lamented that the right-wing parties had united to “vote against the interests of the majority of people who are here, of the workers of Spain.”

“I don’t know what might happen, whether elections will be called, but in the streets, we will continue fighting and the atmosphere is one of a general strike,” she said.

The average rent in Spain has almost doubled in the past 10 years. The average price per square meter has risen from 8.20 euros in 2016 to 15.1 euros ($17.15) this year, according to the real estate website Idealista.

The elderly woman whose eviction sparked the protests, Maricarmen Abascal, has become a symbol for the fight for lower housing costs in the southern European country, where many people are priced out of buying a home and are being squeezed by a small rental market.

The company that evicted her finally caved under immense public and political pressure this week and said that she can return to the apartment. Abascal is currently in a hospital since being removed from her home on a stretcher, but her lawyer said she is happy to know she will be going home.

The decrees were designed to give more protection to renters

Spain's 350-seat Parliament started its session at 11 a.m.

The first decree is meant to stop evictions of vulnerable people like Abascal, make real estate speculation harder, impose tighter restrictions on short-term leases and provide tax incentives to encourage renting and the construction of housing.

The second decree is more controversial. It proposes to make leases automatically renew when they are set to expire, essentially making them indefinite. A property owner would have to pay a tenant 12 months of rent to break the contract.

Catalan separatists scuttle housing decrees

Junts is one of a group of small parties that Sánchez needed to woo when he formed a new government in 2023 and has proven to be a prickly political partner ever since. Its leader, the separatist Carles Puigdemont, has resided in Belgium since fleeing Spain after leading a failed bid to make northeastern Catalonia an independent nation in 2017.

Spain’s Housing Minister, Isabel Rodríguez, made a last-gasp appeal to Junts from the lectern, saying that her ministry had “incorporated 90% of your proposals. Vote for the decrees or at least abstain.”

But Míriam Nogueras of Junts said that the decrees would only lead to owners removing their properties from the rental market, and thus driving up prices even further.

“These decrees still allow speculators to buy property and to evict people,” Nogueras said.

Junts urged the government to negotiate amendments. The government refused.

___

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.