Sumar warns of the cost of overturning the Government's housing decrees: "Whoever opposes the social clamor will have a very delicate destiny"

Sumar has left the Council of Ministers ready to defend the two housing decrees and to increase pressure on the parties that will have to decide their future this Friday in Congress. The Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, has warned of the political cost that rejecting measures that offer "immediate relief" to millions of families could have.

"I predict a very delicate political destiny for whoever opposes this social outcry," Bustinduy warned during an appearance at the Ministry of Labor alongside the Second Vice President, Yolanda Díaz, and Ministers Mónica García, Ernest Urtasun, and Sira Rego.

The image brought together the four main forces that make up the Sumar space -Movimiento Sumar, Más Madrid, Izquierda Unida, and Comuns- in front of a large poster with Article 47 of the Constitution, which recognizes the right to decent housing. The five ministers have claimed the agreement as a "conquest" achieved thanks to social mobilization, although they have also acknowledged the concessions made during an especially tough negotiation with the PSOE.

The message points towards Junts and Podemos, whose votes remain open, although Bustinduy has also criticized the announced rejection by PP and Vox. The Government has requested an extraordinary plenary session for this Friday, October 2, when each decree will be submitted to a separate vote and will need more favorable votes than opposing ones to remain in force.

Sumar wants the discussion to force all groups to take a stand on specific measures. "It will be very difficult to explain a position of disinterest or reluctance," Bustinduy maintained before recalling that in Congress they will talk about evictions, vulture funds, rents, and family protection.

The PSOE imposed separating automatic renewal

The agreement came after an entire night of conversations, a Council of Ministers meeting delayed for an hour, and new contacts that lasted until midday. The main clash was over the automatic renewal of rental contracts, the measure demanded by the Tenants' Union to prevent families from having to leave their homes every time their contract ends.

Sumar intended to include it in the main decree along with the rest of the package. The PSOE finally demanded to move it to a second text, a formula that allows Junts and the Basque Nationalist Party to support the other measures and separately reject the automatic continuity of rentals.

"We wanted there to be a single decree," Bustinduy acknowledged. The minister defended that the renewal can benefit close to five million contracts and presented the measure as a profound transformation of rental culture, with exceptions when the owner needs to recover the home for themselves or for certain family members.

The first decree concentrates the bulk of the agreement. It includes protection against evictions of vulnerable people until 2030, an extraordinary extension of up to two years for contracts expiring before the end of 2028, the regulation of seasonal and room rentals, and the temporary prohibition of speculative purchases made by vulture funds.

It also incorporates deductions for low-income tenants, tax bonuses for landlords, interest-free loans of up to 50,000 euros to facilitate the purchase of a first home, and new measures to expand the public housing stock. Tourist apartments will be subject to a 21% VAT, and platforms will face tougher penalties when marketing irregular accommodations.

The Sumar parties have accepted the bonuses for landlords to facilitate a parliamentary majority, despite their doubts about their effectiveness. They also consider some temporary limits insufficient. The political decision has been to back the agreement and now fight for the two decrees, after months of accusing the PSOE of delaying any serious intervention in the market.

Pressure from the streets has been decisive. The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman expelled from the Madrid house where she had lived since 1956, has triggered demonstrations and encampments in different cities. The protest at Puerta del Sol remains active, and the Tenants' Union rejects the government's decision to divide its main demands into two votes.

Podemos has also called the carving up a "trap" and still avoids guaranteeing its four votes. The Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG), on the other hand, has announced that it will support both decrees even though it considers them insufficient. Sumar reminds that the package far exceeds the decree that Podemos supported in spring and that ended up falling in Congress.

Junts again shields itself behind the small owner

Junts has responded to Sumar's offensive by accusing the minority partner of the Government of "vetoing the protection of the small owner". Its spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, assures that on Monday there was an agreement with the Executive and that the conditions changed during the last hours of the negotiation.

Carles Puigdemont's party accepts suspending evictions and limiting speculative operations when the property belongs to an investment fund. Its main demand is to guarantee that the Administration assumes the cost when the affected party is an owner with few properties and the tenant is in an accredited situation of vulnerability.

Nogueras maintains that more than 90% of homeowners in Catalonia are small landlords and accuses Sumar of leaving them "out in the open". Asked about the number of properties that should mark that category, the spokesperson admitted that setting a definition "is not tremendously simple".

That lack of concreteness weakens the clash posed by Junts. The negotiation has been addressing public compensation for owners affected by the suspension of a launch for days, while the main dispute focuses on the scope of these guarantees and the automatic renewal of contracts.

Junts has even accused Sumar and the rest of the left of responding to "extreme ideologies" and of acting in an electoral key. At the same time, it keeps the negotiation open to avoid appearing alongside PP and Vox overturning the entire shield against evictions and speculation.

The separation of the texts allows it to support the first package and reject the second. That was precisely the solution imposed by the PSOE during the last hours of negotiation, despite the discomfort of Sumar and housing collectives.

Contacts will continue until the extraordinary plenary session. Bustinduy has left the responsibility in the hands of those who will have to press the button this Friday. "Each parliamentary group is the master of its decision and will be at the time of voting," he stressed.