Spain Approves One Housing Decree by a Single Vote and Rejects Another, 17 Days Before the Election

The decrees had already taken effect on a temporary basis when they were published in the official state gazette in early October. Thursday's vote decides whether the approved one stays in force, which is why the result matters to tenants facing eviction before a new government takes office.

How did Spain get to an election over housing?

On 2 October the full Congress rejected both decrees after the conservative People's Party, the far-right Vox and the Catalan nationalist party Junts voted against them, per Catalan News. Junts held its position even after Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez offered to process the texts as a bill. The first decree extended eviction protections to 2030 and barred so-called vulture funds from buying homes until 2028.

The anger was visible. Al Jazeera described Wednesday's strike as a walkout by hundreds of thousands of people over rents and living costs, following protests set off by the September eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid whose death in October caused national outrage. Al Jazeera's account of Thursday's vote differs from Reuters on the body and the tallies, so we rely on Reuters for the result.

What happens next?

Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo of the People's Party has said he would repeal the decrees if he becomes prime minister, and the opposition argues the measures cut housing supply and push up prices, Reuters said. The People's Party and its allies instead propose building more homes.

With 17 days to polling day, the decree is now an election argument as much as a law: voters will decide whether it survives its first full government.