Sumar's ministers appeared together this Friday in Congress after the rejection of the two housing decrees with a warning to those who struck them down and a call to those who demand solutions in the streets. The Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, has accused the Popular Party (PP), the far-right Vox and Junts of acting as "the political arm of rentism" and has warned that "they will pay for this political error at the polls."
"If today the right-wing parties of PP, Vox and Junts believe they have defeated and voted against the Government, they are gravely mistaken," he declared. Bustinduy maintains that the rejection harms the very electorate of these formations and has directed his harshest reproach at Carles Puigdemont's party. "Junts has made an absolutely incomprehensible and disastrous decision, which will lead to the disappearance of their political space," he affirmed.
The minister linked this criticism to the consequences for families living in rented accommodation. "They can say the word Spain or the word Catalonia very loudly. Today they are serving a single flag, which is the flag of the rentier oligarchy, of vulture funds and of money," he denounced. According to Bustinduy, every eviction, every contract that ends and every increase that working families endure will bear the names of those who have rejected the measures.
In view of the protests and housing encampments, he asked "that no one give up". He described a "sideral distance" between the debate in Congress and the demands of the street and defended that there is a social majority, of left and right, that can no longer bear the situation. "All rights have been conquered by fighting, organizing, mobilizing," he recalled.
The two texts approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers have been repealed. The first, which included protection against evictions of vulnerable people and rental extensions, fell by 178 votes against and 172 in favor, with the rejection of PP, Vox, Junts and Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN). The second, on the automatic renewal of contracts, received 184 votes against and 166 in favor. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Coalición Canaria joined its rejection.
"A class conflict"
Before the votes, Bustinduy had defended from the tribune the second decree, aimed at providing stability to tenants through the continuity of their contracts. His intervention pointed to the parties opposed to the measures for "leaving millions of Spaniards unprotected" and placed the confrontation on the economic interests that, in his opinion, they protect.
The minister spoke of "a class conflict" and accused these formations of defending an international oligarchy that profits from workers' wages through their rents. He also reviewed the measures that were at stake, from contract extensions and protection against evictions to limits on the use of seasonal and room rentals to circumvent regulation.
One of the harshest passages of his speech was the comparison between the treatment of those who receive aid or collect a pension and those who live off the income from their properties. "The family that collects 525 euros from the minimum vital income lives off 'handouts', a retiree who has their pension after a lifetime of work is a threat to public accounts, and yet someone who has inherited seven apartments and lives without lifting a finger is an entrepreneur, and we do defend that person," he reproached. "What hypocrisy and what a betrayal of the people," he added.
After the parliamentary defeat, Bustinduy reiterated that Sumar will continue working to recover these protections. "We will continue by land, sea, and air until the right to housing makes its way," he assured. Outside Congress, the Tenants' Union confirmed that it maintains the encampment in Puerta del Sol and called for continued weekend mobilizations and to prepare for a general strike, still without a date.
The Sunday meeting
Sumar's response comes as the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, takes the weekend to reflect on a possible early election. Before the vote, he had intervened by surprise to ask PP, Vox, and Junts to support the decrees. "Do the right thing because history will judge you sooner than you think and with more forcefulness than you imagine," he had warned them.
Movimiento Sumar, Izquierda Unida (IU), Más Madrid and Comuns will meet this Sunday to analyze the scenario. The space has pending the election of the person who will lead its candidacy and the brand with which it will run in the next general elections. The federal coordinator of IU, Antonio Maíllo, has asked to accelerate these decisions and specify the political program.
Internal sources of Sumar consulted by 'ElConstitucional.es' indicate that the path of Pablo Bustinduy as a potential candidate for the general elections is opening again. These sources report that within the space there is a very positive assessment of his management of the housing crisis and the speeches he has given during these days.
This satisfaction is causing his name to start moving again against that of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, in the debate about who should lead the candidacy. The decision is still pending while the formations prepare for Sunday's meeting and wait to know what Sánchez will do.
The second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has confirmed that she has spoken with Sánchez, although she has maintained reservations about the content of that conversation. In statements to 'La Sexta', she stressed that the call corresponds to the president. "I think it must be respected, he has to think and, of course, that decision is exclusively his," she said. She has also assured that Sumar will be prepared for the decision he adopts.
Within the formation there is caution about the advisability of going to the polls immediately. Sources from Sumar recognize that they are "exhausted" and ask to avoid haste. They consider that citizen mobilization helps, but they maintain doubts about its electoral translation at a complicated moment for the Government and for a candidacy that is still under construction.
Bustinduy had assured in the morning that they will be "ready for whatever it takes", with housing as the priority of Sunday's meeting and their political proposal. "Our political program has an essential point above all others, which is the right to housing," he stated.
