Sumar has chosen housing to open one of its first political battles after the summer. The minority partner in the Government wants to recover as soon as possible the major decree that was shelved in July and has been negotiating for weeks, especially with Junts, to ensure that this time the extraordinary extension of rental contracts reaches Congress alive.
The Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, confirmed this Monday that conversations remain open and has placed Carles Puigdemont's party at the center of negotiations. Their objective is to bring the royal decree-law "as soon as possible" to the Council of Ministers, but avoiding a repeat of the scenario from a few months ago: approving a norm without having enough votes to validate it.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, acknowledged this morning during his interview on 'Hoy por Hoy' on Cadena SER that the text is still being negotiated. He also summarized quite well the parliamentary problem facing the coalition. For Junts, some measures are "excessive"; for parties to the left of the PSOE, they are insufficient.
"We are working on this royal decree-law, not to approve it in the Council of Ministers, but to validate it in the Cortes Generales," Sánchez explained, asking the groups for an exercise of "maximum responsibility." The nuance marks the strategy chosen after the summer: Moncloa prefers to wait rather than expose itself to another parliamentary defeat.
The package agreed upon by PSOE and Sumar has as its main flag the automatic extension of certain rental contracts until 2028. Measures have also been proposed to limit abuses in seasonal and room rentals, raise the VAT on tourist apartments to 21%, and offer tax incentives to owners who reduce rents. The definitive content remains subject to parliamentary negotiation.
Junts and Podemos pull the decree in opposite directions
The difficulty lies in building a majority with partners who start from practically opposing positions. Junts described the project as "interventionist" before the summer, demanded respect for Catalonia's competencies, and demanded changes that better protect small owners. Among the formulas being negotiated are tax bonuses for landlords, a concession that Sumar has internally described as a necessary "toad" to secure votes.
Puigdemont's party has also defended deductions related to rent and mortgages, more investment in public housing, and modifications to other parts of the package. Sumar believes there is room for understanding and has been holding conversations throughout August to try to secure that support.
The problem immediately appears at the other end of the majority. Podemos already warned before the summer that it would not support tax advantages for landlords and demanded to maintain protection measures against evictions of vulnerable families. It also rejects introducing certain changes to the Land Law within the same package.
The purple party has further hardened its position this Monday. Its co-spokesperson, Pablo Fernández, has placed Podemos at a "sidereal" distance from the Government's housing policy and has accused the Executive of having benefited "landlords, vulture funds, and large holders" during the legislature. For Podemos, housing has become "the main black spot of this Government".
The precedent explains the precautions. Congress already rejected a decree last April that included the extraordinary extension of rents. PP, Vox, Junts, and UPN voted against it, and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) abstained. Sumar then assured that it would reintroduce the measure "as many times as necessary."
The new version precisely tries to broaden the ground for agreement. PSOE and Sumar incorporated more instruments on tourist rentals, temporary contracts, incentives, and affordable housing so that each partner could find enough elements to support the whole. The decree was about to reach the last Council of Ministers in July, but the lack of guarantees regarding Junts and Podemos ended up forcing its postponement.
Sumar plays one of its main banners of the course
Housing also has special political importance for Sumar. After months of internal difficulties and with the space formed by Movimiento Sumar, Izquierda Unida, Más Madrid, and Comuns still pending to define its future electoral candidacy, its leaders need to translate their presence in the Government into recognizable measures before the legislature ends.
The extension of rental agreements is one of them. Sumar has been presenting it for months as immediate protection for those who are reaching the end of contracts signed in recent years and may face sharp increases when they have to renegotiate them. The Department of Social Rights even estimated that the new mechanism could reach nearly four million people.
The underlying scenario also does not help to reduce the pressure. The lack of supply continues to fuel rising housing costs, and the Bank of Spain has estimated an accumulated deficit of some 750,000 homes between 2021 and 2025. The Government has also just begun distributing the first 800 million of the State Housing Plan 2026-2030, endowed with 7,000 million between state and regional funding.
For Sumar, getting the decree would allow it to regain initiative in a legislature where Congress has become an increasingly complicated terrain for the coalition. The negotiation also forces the acceptance of concessions that are uncomfortable within the left itself, especially the tax breaks demanded to attract Junts.
Urtasun made it clear this Monday how far that parliamentary caution will go. "We are going to take it to the Council of Ministers as soon as possible, trying to have the votes secured in Congress so that this time it can be validated."
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