A brutal day for Pedro Sánchez. Spain's parliament rejected both of his government's emergency housing decrees on Friday — the first fell 178 to 172, the second by an even wider 184 to 166 — after the Catalan separatist party Junts, a sometime government ally, joined the PP and Vox in voting no.
The decrees would have banned evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, extended a two-year rent freeze, tightened short-term rental rules, and made leases automatically renew. Sánchez pleaded from the tribune: "Do the right thing, or history will judge you sooner than you think and more harshly than you can imagine." It didn't work.
Junts' Miriam Nogueras argued the measures would backfire — driving landlords out of the rental market and pushing prices even higher. Outside parliament, crowds chanted "your profits, our misery." The decrees were a response to the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal last week, which ignited tent encampments across Madrid. Tenants' Union spokesperson Alicia del Rio says the encampment will keep expanding: "We're aiming for a general strike." More mass rallies are planned for Saturday — and PP leader Feijóo is now openly demanding snap elections.