Sumar applauds housing protests and harshly criticizes the PP for the decree-laws: "this country could not afford this level of social pain"

The Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, encouraged this Wednesday to maintain social mobilizations, such as the encampment in the Puerta del Sol, and reproached the PP for having distanced itself, even before knowing its content, from the two royal decree-laws on housing that will be voted on this Friday in the Congress of Deputies.

Urtasun has defended that the measures promoted by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday "tackle speculation" and has expressed confidence in moving forward with the two legislative texts. "Friday is not the end of everything, we will have to continue working, but it is clear that we will be able to tackle speculation in our country," he maintained.

The Sumar leader added that he does not want to enter into the interpretation that there is "one decree that comes with votes and another that comes without votes," because his objective is to move both forward. In the same intervention, he alluded to the "siren songs" about a possible eviction of the encampment by the Community of Madrid and the City Council of Madrid, and responded with a message of support to the participants.

"It is a peaceful protest and I want to thank them for what they are doing, because they are making institutions move, and I encourage them to remain mobilized," said Ernest Urtasun.

Public housing, Housing Law and pressure on PP communities

Urtasun reiterated that Friday will represent "a very big leap" in measures that, he pointed out, they have been working on for a long time and that the mobilized groups had been demanding, although he insisted that the process does not end there. Among the next steps, he cited the commitment to investment in public housing that will be reflected in the General State Budget project, as well as the need for the communities governed by the PP to apply the Housing Law to cap prices in stressed areas.

The minister defended that the measures approved by the Government provide "time and tranquility," because they will prevent vulnerable people from being evicted. For this reason, he expressed his confidence in having the support of parties such as Junts, and warned that "this country could not afford this level of social pain."

Protection of small owners and curbing seasonal rentals

In relation to one of the demands raised by Junts, the protection of small owners, Urtasun explained that the approved decree distinguishes between the role of investment funds and that of owners with few homes. "As of the decree we have approved, a vulture fund can no longer evict and the administration will not compensate it; however, if there is a small owner with two or three homes, the administration will compensate them," he detailed.

The Minister of Culture also stressed that one of the main measures affects what he has called the "great fraud" of seasonal and room rentals, by preventing the price limit from being circumvented. As he specified, with the new decree the sum of these leases cannot be higher than the total price of the home, which, in his opinion, curbs "one of the big loopholes" in the market.