On Friday, October 2, Spain experienced yet another of those surreal episodes in which Pedro Sánchez’s government has specialized. After being in government since 2018, promising in 2023 the construction of 183,000 social housing units—which were never seen—and following more than 280,000 evictions and a Housing Law that, as experts warned, has led to a reduction of over 30% in the supply of rental apartments and further exacerbated the problem…
After all that and much more, last Tuesday, September 29, the government approved two royal decree-laws on housing—the minister in charge even admitted to being confused about what had actually been approved—while the Vice President of the Government from the communist wing, Yolanda Díaz, called on people to mobilize… against the government, in an attempt to force Parliament to approve the second royal decree-law, which, if passed, would have further reduced the supply of rental apartments and worsened the issue even more. (It included indefinite contract extensions, similar to Franco’s 1964 law that destroyed Spain’s rental market—a law that the first socialist government of Felipe González had to repeal in 1985.)
The government had placed all its hopes on passing the first royal decree-law (2% caps on rent increases, while inflation stands at 4.9%; mandatory contract extensions for at least two years…), which, combined with the legal protection squatters and non-paying tenants (inkiocupas) already enjoy, would have further shrank the rental market.
The tragic eviction of an 87-year-old woman, a retired civil servant who had lived for 70 years in an old rent-controlled apartment—paying €500 for a flat in one of Madrid’s best areas—led to protests across Spain and a uprising by thousands of young people, unable to even consider renting a home (average rent is at €1,100, while the most common salary in Spain is €1,200), let alone think about buying a flat.
The government chose to put itself at the head of the protest and assure that its royal decree-law would alleviate the problem. But the seven MPs from Junts, Puigdemont’s party—who supported Sánchez’s investiture in exchange for an amnesty law—refused to fall into the trap and voted no. To both decrees. Maintaining that they would aggravate the problem.
So, for two days, Spain had a rental housing regime that—in addition to taking more than 4,000 rental apartments off the market—will fill the courts with lawsuits and disputes… for nothing.
The socialist leader of Castilla-La Mancha, who has clashed for years with the populist demagogy of the government in Madrid, summarized the issue clearly: “Puigdemont had and still has the remote control of this legislature.” So at this hour in La Moncloa, President Sánchez is weighing whether to take advantage of the outrage of the poor young people he has managed to mislead once again, and dissolve parliament to face the ballot box.
