Spanish Government Seeks to Approve Housing Measures Before Elections

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced yesterday that his government would introduce two new bills to tackle the housing crisis, hoping to have them passed through a special parliamentary procedure before the early elections scheduled for late November. A special committee in the parliament, which was dissolved by the prime minister, will consider the decrees instead of the full chamber of 350 deputies.

Following the rejection by a majority of deputies on Friday, which triggered a political crisis, the government hopes that this approach will allow it to pass at least one of the texts, which would then be applied provisionally. Sanchez spoke at a press conference about “21 measures” aimed at strengthening the “protection” of tenants in a real estate market he described as “distorted.”

The socialist leader affirmed that the two texts aim to “facilitate people’s access to affordable rental housing, as well as home purchases,” pointing in particular to interest-free loans of up to “50,000 euros” for first-time buyers. Sanchez stressed before journalists that “this government will not give up.”

The special committee, composed of 69 deputies, is the parliamentary body provided for by the Constitution in the event that the Congress of Deputies is dissolved, a situation that became effective yesterday morning when the decree calling for early elections on November 29 was published in the Official State Gazette.

Sanchez’s left-wing government has not held an absolute majority in parliament, which has prevented the passage of its key pledges for years. However, within this committee, it is sufficient for the government to secure the support of small parties, including the Basque Nationalist Party, to ensure the texts are approved. In this scenario, the opposition of Catalan separatist deputies from the Junts party would no longer be an obstacle, after their actions on Friday led to the rejection of the government’s previous draft laws.