Sánchez responds to Maricarmen that the Government "is working against the clock" on a housing decree and throws a dart at Ayuso and Feijóo: "A nest, but of vultures"

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has stated that the Executive is working "against the clock" to approve next Tuesday the royal decree-law on housing, a norm that in recent days has become known as the "Maricarmen decree". The head of the Executive made these statements during a rally held in Getafe (Madrid), at the presentation event of the PSOE of Madrid candidacies for the municipal and regional elections of 2027, in a meeting where he was accompanied by the general secretary of the PSOE-M and Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López.

Sánchez explained that his message responds to the request made the day before by Maricarmen, the 87-year-old woman who was evicted from her home this Wednesday, after she disseminated a video in which she asked the president to bring to the Council of Ministers a new decree to avoid more cases like hers. "Yesterday Maricarmen made a video and asked the Government of Spain and in particular me that next Tuesday we bring a royal decree-law to begin to alleviate the housing emergency situation experienced by many vulnerable groups, elderly people and also millions of Spaniards who suffer from the housing crisis. And I, Maricarmen, have a message for you. The Government is working against the clock to bring next Tuesday the Royal Decree-Law on Housing," he said.

Request to parliamentary groups for the decree to go ahead

In that context, the President of the Government has asked the parliamentary groups for "a last effort" for the norm to be validated in the Congress of Deputies, and has appealed for their support in the name of the affected person and all the people who are experiencing problems accessing a home. "For Maricarmen and for the millions of Spaniards who suffer from the housing crisis, because it is not a question of ideology, it is a question of humanity," he stressed.

During his speech, Pedro Sánchez made no reference to the encampment in the Puerta del Sol. He did remember the Secretary of Housing, David Lucas, who passed away last August, and assured that he was negotiating the royal decree-law on housing so that cases like Mari Carmen's would not happen. In addition, he criticized the Popular Party and Vox for having rejected it, arguing that "it would have prevented Maricarmen from being evicted from her home today".

Criticism of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the PP

The President of the Government has also directed his reproaches at the Government of the Community of Madrid, presided over by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whom he has accused of not having "money" to "protect Maricarmen," but indeed to buy the regional leader a penthouse of more than six million euros. As he has stated, a similar situation extends "to many other vulnerable people" in the region "and in all territories" governed by the popular party.

Sánchez has also ironized about the explanations offered by the Madrid president regarding the purchase of the penthouse and has stated that she has accumulated "more versions given" about the acquisition than "millions given to Quirón," the healthcare company that manages several hospitals in the Community. "Yes, I went to visit it and it didn't seem bad to me," he said, to then reproduce the idea attributed to Ayuso: "But, woman, how could a penthouse with a 200-meter terrace seem bad to you?" He then questioned whether the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, had offered an assessment on this matter: "Not a peep," he concluded.

In another of his criticisms, the head of the Executive has stated that "Ms. Ayuso wanted to have a nest, but of vultures," and has called the opposition to the central government "toxic." To illustrate this, he alluded to the popular deputy Ana Vázquez, who this Wednesday went to the Congress with a can of pepper spray to denounce the situation in Ceuta, and whose content caused, according to Sánchez, "half the chamber" to be closed and several people to "have to go to emergencies." "The woman says she would take it again, if the embarrassment, like the insults, always come from the same side," he added.

Finally, Pedro Sánchez has maintained that the PP "offers no alternative" and that its strategy consists of "playing that the worse it is for Spain, the better it is for them." "They have done nothing but put spokes in the wheel and even so, Spain has advanced during these last eight years as it did not advance during the years they governed," he affirmed before the attendees.