Spanish parliament rejects government proposal for emergency measures to resolve housing crisis

The Spanish government today lost two key votes needed to ratify a package of emergency measures aimed at alleviating the housing crisis, which has sparked large protests outside Parliament.

The Catalan separatist party Junts (Together) fulfilled its promise made a few hours earlier to vote against the government’s proposed measures. This doomed the measure when their vote joined those of the center-right People’s Party and the far-right Vox party, both of which oppose the government’s measures.

Protesters outside parliament loudly welcomed the deputies’ decision.

The first decree that was rejected was intended to halt the eviction of vulnerable individuals, make real estate speculation more difficult, introduce greater restrictions on short-term rentals, and provide tax incentives to encourage renting and the construction of housing.

The second decree was more controversial, proposing that rental contracts be automatically renewed before expiration, effectively making them indefinite. Property owners would have to pay tenants a year’s rent to terminate the contract.

The expected failure of the proposal has fueled speculation in the Spanish media that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez might consider moving up elections that are scheduled for next year. Sánchez made no statements today when he arrived at Parliament. His office did not immediately respond to questions about possible early elections, reports the AP agency.

The government’s decrees were intended to calm public outrage after last week’s eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her apartment in Madrid, in front of television cameras, which sparked protests and the setting up of tents with demonstrators in the largest square in Madrid.

Sánchez’s progressive coalition suffered a costly parliamentary defeat that will likely further inflame protests, reports AP.

Outside parliament, protesters held placards with images of vultures, condemning real estate speculators as responsible for driving up prices.

The average rental price of an apartment in Spain has almost doubled in the last ten years. The average price per square meter rose from 8.20 euros in 2016 to 15.1 euros this year, according to the real estate portal Idealista.

The elderly woman whose eviction sparked protests, Marikarmen Abascal, has become a symbol of the fight for lower housing prices in the country, where many people cannot afford to buy a home due to high prices and are pressured by an increasingly limited rental market.

The company that evicted Abascal eventually gave in to enormous public and political pressure this week and allowed her to return to her apartment. She has been in the hospital since she was carried out of her apartment on a stretcher, but her lawyer said she is happy because she knows she will return home.

The Junts party is one of a group of small parties that Sánchez needed when he formed a new government in 2023 and has proven to be a difficult political partner since then. The party’s leader, separatist Carles Puigdemont, has lived in Belgium since fleeing Spain after the failed attempt to secede Catalonia in 2017, which he led.