The autonomous governments of the Partido Popular have this Thursday opened the door to taking the housing decrees to court if Congress validates them this Friday. Castilla y León has announced that it will appeal, while other communities are studying their next steps. Their main objections are the distribution of powers, the obligations that would fall on the autonomous regions, and the "legal uncertainty" they attribute to the regulations.
The most concrete position has been set by the Executive of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. Its spokesperson and Minister of Economy and Finance, Carlos Fernández Carriedo, has announced that the Junta is preparing the appeals because it considers that the decrees invade regional powers and harm Castilla y León. Their submission is conditional on the measures passing the parliamentary vote.
Carriedo has reproached the Government for a "total exclusion" of the communities during the drafting of the texts. Among the obligations he questions is that the regional administration must assume rental payments in certain situations of non-payment. He has also criticized the succession of regulations that modify the conditions of contracts on consecutive days, an argument shared by the national leadership of the PP.
From Génova they support their regional governments going to court in defense of their powers, according to 'popular' sources cited by Europa Press. The warning adds a possible judicial challenge to the parliamentary rejection already announced by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. For now, other regions prefer to know the result of Congress before specifying actions.
PP presidents question the effects on rent
The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has accused the Executive of generating insecurity with decrees that "might not even last hours". He has also reproached Sánchez for an "electoral use" of housing after the protests and has defended families who use their savings to buy a property to rent it out.
In Galicia, the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, has questioned that the Government focuses its discourse on the large funds when, according to him, the majority of landlords are small owners. He has denounced that the texts transfer burdens to them and has called for dialogue with the regions. In contrast to the state measures, he advocates increasing the construction of housing.
The president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, has also warned that burdening owners with the vulnerability of tenants will reduce supply. The common approach of these executives is that social protection must be accompanied by guarantees for landlords and actions that increase the number of available homes.
The regional president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has presented the measures as an affront to 28 million owners, who, she said, are treated as "scoundrels." She has called for respect for "the savings of the middle class" and has defended their right to rent out their properties or leave them to their children. Her argument mixes those who live in their own homes with those who rent them out, different situations regarding the rental extensions being discussed in Congress. Madrid has not yet announced a specific appeal.
The Ministry of Housing defends the rigor of the text
The Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, has anticipated that there will be appeals, but has defended the legal preparation of the measures. "I have no fear because it is a text that has been rigorously worked on," she stated this Thursday in an interview on 'Hoy por Hoy' on Cadena SER.
Rodríguez has questioned that "regional governments or political parties like the PP repeatedly appeal everything that is good for people." Her intervention took place in the morning, before several autonomous communities specified their warnings, as part of the defense of the package approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers.
The minister has also pointed out Ayuso's refusal to declare stressed areas, a tool of the Housing Law to contain rents. She explained that the new decree will prevent updating rents that exceed the state reference index even if the community has not declared that area. Furthermore, she has rejected that protecting tenants necessarily causes a withdrawal of homes and has acknowledged that some measures will require regulatory development.
The PP's alternative focuses on building a million homes during a legislature, reforming the Land Law to streamline procedures, and reinforcing the protection of owners with its proposal against occupation. The party also proposes tax breaks to facilitate purchases, especially for young people, and aid for rehabilitating properties. These are its commitments if it comes to power.
Friday's vote will decide which measures remain in force. The first decree brings together protection against evictions until 2030, extraordinary two-year extensions for certain rentals, limits on speculative purchases, and tax incentives. The second regulates the automatic renewal of contracts and compensation when the owner terminates them without a cause contemplated in the norm.
The PNV will support the first text and reject the second, which lacks sufficient support. Podemos will support both. Junts has called its leadership to meet at 9:00 PM to decide its vote, on which the validation of the main package depends. Sánchez asked the groups this afternoon to set aside partisan confrontations and approve it for a matter of "pure humanity."
