The left closes ranks and demands the PSOE stop evictions, extend rentals, and stop vulture funds with the 'Maricarmen Decree'

The parliamentary left has joined forces this Monday to increase pressure on the PSOE a few hours before the Council of Ministers addresses the new housing decree. Movimiento Sumar, Más Madrid, Izquierda Unida, Comuns, Podemos, ERC, EH Bildu, Compromís and BNG have appeared before the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, where Maricarmen Abascal remains hospitalized, with a common battery of demands that they consider essential to support the norm.

The photograph has brought together two government ministers, Mónica García and Sira Rego, with representatives of Podemos and the rest of Pedro Sánchez's parliamentary partners. An unusual image after years of clashes and reproaches between the forces that make up Sumar and the purple party. The housing crisis has now placed everyone on shared ground and has made Maricarmen's eviction the trigger for pressure directed at both the PSOE and Junts.

The bloc demands complete protection against evictions of vulnerable families without housing alternatives, the freezing and extension of rental contracts, their automatic renewal, the regulation of seasonal and room rentals, and measures against tourist apartment fraud. It also demands preventing speculative housing purchases by investment funds.

A shared minimum with important differences

Sumar advocates a reinforced two-year extension for contracts expiring before summer 2028, maintaining current conditions during that period. It also wants contracts to be automatically renewable when the tenant fulfills their obligations. "I don't believe that a landlord cannot renew a contract unless it is to speculate," Mónica García has stated.

The minority partner in the Government believes that the text is still far from meeting these demands. García recalled the walkout of Sumar ministers in a previous Council of Ministers and warned that they could do so again. "Tomorrow we will walk out again if that decree does not include all the measures," she affirmed. Yolanda Díaz has also warned that her political space will not approve a text that falls short of the housing emergency.

Podemos shares that common ground of measures but aims to go further. The party demands a legal reduction in rental prices, a ban on the purchase of homes for speculation, and the expropriation of properties accumulated by vulture funds. Its spokesperson, Pablo Fernández, considers the proposals known so far to be "a patch" and has linked the vote of its four deputies to the response of the Tenants' Union and the movements maintaining the encampment in Puerta del Sol.

Tito Morano, head of Economy for Podemos, has reproached the Executive for the fact that the groups necessary to validate the decree have not yet received the document. In his opinion, the Government has once again negotiated first with Junts to close a watered-down text and then demand support from the left. The demands presented by the housing movement represent a "minimum of dignity" for the purple party, although Podemos also aspires to intervene on the hundreds of thousands of flats controlled by funds and on homes diverted to the tourist market.

The other forces have added their own warnings. Izquierda Unida rejects that protection measures be exchanged for new tax advantages for landlords. Compromís demands maintaining the automatic extension, regulating seasonal and room rentals, and withdrawing bonuses for owners. ERC and EH Bildu demand an ambitious norm that prevents evicting vulnerable families without offering them another home. The Comuns have also asked the PSOE to respond with concrete measures to the unrest that has filled the streets.

The difficult balance between Junts and Podemos

The Ministry of Housing is working with a draft that includes protection against evictions, a veto on speculative purchases by funds, contract stabilization, regulation of seasonal rentals, and a 21% VAT for tourist flats. It also contemplates aid for acquiring a first home, tax bonuses for tenants and owners who reduce rents, and the safeguarding of the public housing stock.

The specific wording remains open. One of the biggest clashes affects the extension of rental agreements. PSOE and Sumar had agreed in July to extend expiring contracts for two years, but sources from the minority partner denounce that the socialists now intend to reduce that period. The recovery of Maricarmen's apartment through expropriation will also not, in principle, be included in Tuesday's decree and would be left for a later negotiation.

Junts demands tax breaks, legal certainty for owners, and that administrations assume unpaid rents when a vulnerable family lives in the apartment of a small landlord. It also agrees to limit the activity of vulture funds and suspend evictions when these companies are the owners. Josep Rull has called for abandoning the "ideological trench" and seeking a common minimum that allows the norm to be approved. Podemos suspects that this agreement will serve to reduce the scope of the decree and has warned that it will not accept a "take it or leave it" previously agreed with Junts and the PNV.

The arithmetic leaves the PSOE trapped between both extremes. The decree would come into force after its publication, but would have to be validated by Congress within 30 days. The Government needs to retain the votes of Junts, Podemos, ERC, EH Bildu, the PNV, and the rest of its allies. A limited text may lose part of the left, while a more interventionist regulation runs the risk of being rejected by the more conservative nationalist parties.

Conversations will continue until the start of the Council of Ministers. Ernest Urtasun still sees room for an agreement and admits that any progress will come driven by the mobilization in Puerta del Sol. Podemos maintains distrust and expects to know the document before deciding its vote. "We don't have too much hope in the Government," Morano acknowledged, trusting in citizen pressure to prevent the response to Maricarmen's eviction from being "falsely closed" again.