Junts has opened a path this Friday to support the new housing decree that the Government wants to approve next Tuesday, although it still avoids guaranteeing its votes. Carles Puigdemont's party assures that the PSOE sees "with good eyes" its proposals, among which are tax incentives for owners, the suspension of certain evictions, and the prohibition of investment funds from continuing to buy homes.
The spokesperson for Junts in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, explained that the party personally handed a text with its measures to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, last September 3. The PSOE would have now conveyed its interest and would be studying a proposal that the independentists present as the possible "minimum common denominator" between forces with very different positions.
"The proposals we have defended in recent months are now on the PSOE's table and, from what we hear, they value them positively," Nogueras stated. The spokesperson called for the decree to be approved "as soon as possible," but warned that her party would reject any measure it considers "legally inapplicable."
The rapprochement comes after months of deadlock. Junts voted alongside the PP and the far-right Vox to dismantle the social shield that protected vulnerable families from eviction and also blocked the initiative that sought to extend rental contracts. That rejection forced the Government to postpone a decree initially announced for July and which has not been approved during September either.
The eviction of Maricarmen, the 87-year-old woman expelled this Wednesday from the home where she had been living since 1956, has accelerated contacts that remained stalled. Junts now seeks to present itself as part of the solution, although the conditions it proposes considerably reduce the scope of the protection demanded by left-wing parties.
Limited protection and compensation for landlords
Junts' proposal distinguishes between homes owned by investment funds or companies and those belonging to individuals. In the first case, it agrees to suspend evictions of vulnerable families and proposes to prevent vulture funds from acquiring new properties.
The final wording will have to specify which companies would be affected. Junts rejects extending the prohibition to all legal entities because it considers that this formula would also reach cooperatives, public companies, and administrations. The party also proposes reviewing the tax advantages of listed real estate investment companies (SOCIMIs) to link them to the offer of affordable housing.
For flats owned by private individuals, the protection would be different. Evictions could be postponed until the vulnerable family found an alternative housing solution, but the Administration would have to pay the landlord the monthly payments that the tenant had failed to pay. If this public compensation did not arrive, Junts argues that the eviction could proceed.
This formula leaves a large part of tenants out of direct suspension, since most of the rental stock belongs to private individuals. It also shifts the cost of protection to the State, one of Junts' central demands since negotiations began.
The pro-independence party demands that contract extensions only benefit those who are up to date with payments and that the owner can recover the home when needed. Its package also includes tax deductions in the Personal Income Tax (IRPF) for rent and home purchase, mortgage deductions, savings accounts for young people, and mandatory rehousing for those over 65 who are evicted.
Junts also proposes that a person can settle their mortgage for the same reduced amount at which the bank sells the debt to a fund. The measure seeks to prevent an entity from transferring, for example, a debt of 100,000 euros for 30,000 and the buyer ending up claiming the full amount from the affected party or keeping their home.
Sumar accepts to negotiate and Podemos keeps its votes in the air
The Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, has shown himself willing to study the tax bonuses demanded by Junts. "People want solutions," he defended after offering his "extended hand" to a party whose votes are necessary to pass the decree.
Sumar demands in return to recover protection against evictions, regulate seasonal rentals, and extend contracts to avoid difficult-to-assume increases. The minority partner in the Government also maintains its demand to expropriate Maricarmen's flat, a measure rejected by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños.
Podemos maintains a more distant position. Irene Montero has warned that the decree could end up being a "patch" and has reproached the PSOE for negotiating its limits with Junts. The purple party demands to prohibit all evictions without a housing alternative, without a long list of exceptions, intervene in rental prices, and expropriate homes from vulture funds.
Its four deputies can once again prove decisive. The Government needs to build a majority that includes Junts without losing Podemos and the rest of the left along the way, the same balance that frustrated previous attempts to approve housing measures.
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) has also criticized the open dialogue with Junts. Its spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, considers it a "mistake" to allow Puigdemont's party to set the limits of the negotiation and has asked that the Government and the left-wing forces be the ones to define the content. "Enough of the blackmail from the Catalan right," he stated.
The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), for its part, has urged the Executive to seek consensuses capable of overcoming parliamentary fragmentation. The Government intends to approve the royal decree-law in the Council of Ministers next Tuesday, September 29, but will then have 30 days to obtain its validation in Congress.
Junts expects to receive a response from the PSOE before the end of the weekend. Nogueras maintains that there is room for agreement and reminds that "the arithmetic is what it is", although she still does not commit the vote of her seven deputies. The text that reaches the Council of Ministers on Tuesday will have to show how much the Government has yielded to recover a protection that the independentist party itself helped to dismantle.
