United Podemos and ERC, two of the main and usual allies of the Government, warned the socialist sector of the Executive on Thursday that either it rectifies the latest proposal on the Housing law, which does not contemplate the option of capped rental prices, or “He will have to change partners.” The progressive bloc that supported the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to the presidency and the latest budgets has set the fulfillment of that agreement as a “non-negotiable red line”. JunstsxCat and EH Bildu are in that tune. PP, Citizens and PNV ask the Executive to make a counter offer to study it.
The government agreement signed a year and a half ago between the PSOE and United We Can for the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez included the commitment to stop the abusive increases in rents and proposed measures to “put a ceiling” on those prices, especially in market areas that are classified as stressed. But to be able to set limits on rents, as has already happened in some European capitals, the Government should regulate this possibility and enable this instrument to both municipalities and autonomies. That is the debate within the Executive, between the two coalition partners, but also with the usual allies in Parliament, who consider that point of the agreement “inalienable”, according to top-level sources from the United We Can and ERC , which have 35 and 13 basic seats. The PSOE only has 120.
This new discussion between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos also comes at a critical moment, after Pablo Iglesias’ announcement this week that he will cease to be second vice president to embark as a candidate for the Community of Madrid. But Iglesias himself and his surroundings were in charge of clarifying that he would not leave his position or the act of deputy in Congress for a few weeks, near the start of the Madrid electoral campaign, precisely to culminate the negotiations underway to promote the law of Housing. It is an emblematic project for Podemos, ERC, JxCat, EH Bildu, and for the housing platforms close to the 15-M movement, with which these parties remain in contact.
“I have no doubt that the PSOE is going to rectify and comply with the signed agreement,” the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, jumped like a spring. In line with what was expressed in a “crystalline” way by the leader of the purple formation, Pablo Iglesias: “The PSOE and United We can commit ourselves to all of Spain to regulate rental prices. Failure to comply with a government agreement that was signed before the citizens is disrespecting them. United We Can is not going to allow people to be fooled. What is signed, is fulfilled ”. Iglesias thus understands that “freedom in a democratic society is not the freedom to impose abusive rents” and that “there is no freedom if a family cannot access decent housing.”
Podemos, ERC and seven other parties, left-wing and mainly Catalan nationalists, have signed up to two manifestos in support of limiting rental prices. From Podemos and ERC yesterday the PSOE was reminded in Congress that the Executive of Pedro Sánchez does not have a great “parliamentary stability” and warned that it “would be in danger and be at risk” if it is not willing to change the project of the Housing Law that is already being promoted by the Ministry of Transport headed by José Luis Ábalos. “It is not just an ordeal like other times, in this case it would be going to total war,” they explain in United We Can.
And both in Podemos and in ERC they take another step in their threats: “If the Government takes this Housing Law to Congress as it is, without negotiating it and without attending to our requests, it will not come out unless they obtain the support of other partners. like the PP ”. In ERC they insist: “This project is humiliating and hostile.” And they refer to the fact that the Ministry’s project, advanced by EL PAÍS, only contemplates bonuses and tax benefits, but does not limit rents.
Tax incentives
The economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, assured this Thursday in Onda Cero that this “instrument of tax incentives” for owners to rent houses has already been proven to work. Even so, both the first vice president, Carmen Calvo, as the spokesman minister, María Jesús Montero, and Ábalos himself, chose to emphasize that the negotiation is not finished, that there will be more meetings and that the agreement with Podemos is intended to be fulfilled, although They did not specify more or how.
These arguments of the PSOE do not convince Podemos, ERC or other circumstantial allies. JuntsxCat points to the lack of trust that the socialist sector offers in general: “To negotiate with the PSOE you have to go to a notary.” Junts, in any case, will wait to set a vote to know the final project but in Catalonia it voted in favor of regulating rents and agrees with ERC that a state law would give a better framework to its regional project.
In the PNV they also indicated that they want to know more details, although their spokesman, Aitor Esteban, has already opted on several occasions in favor of analyzing measures to limit rental prices to facilitate the emancipation of young people.
On the other side of the hemicycle, PP and Cs are not for the task of saving the Executive of Sánchez in that future vote. No one has yet contacted them from the Ministry or the Government. But from the popular ranks they already advance that they are “contrary to the adhesion contracts of bills” of this Cabinet and also that the “government’s housing policy is for occupation and expropriation” and that those ideas are “very far” of yours in “defense of private property.” From Cs, and with the same caution, they point out that they are pleased that the PSOE now seems to forget about the “interventionist policies and outdated recipes promoted by United We Can” and ratify their position against “expropriation, occupation and intervention From the market”.
#Housing #Law #threatens #parliamentary #stability #government #support
