Spain housing decrees face knife-edge vote as Junts holds key

Spain's Congress will vote Friday on two housing decree-laws sent by the government this week. The first contains anti-eviction measures and rent regulation; the second would introduce automatic indefinite lease renewals. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) announced it will support the first decree but vote against the second, dooming the indefinite-lease text given opposition from the PP, Vox and UPN.

Junts per Catalunya's seven deputies now hold the balance on the broader first decree. The party will decide its position in a telematic meeting Thursday night, choosing between yes, no or abstention. In previous housing votes Junts joined the right to defeat government proposals.

“We are going to be a tool in the hands of the movement”

Social Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy, Sumar's lead negotiator, called for street pressure from the Tenants' Union and plaza occupations to secure votes. Podemos leader Ione Belarra tied her party's vote to whatever the Tenants' Union decides, criticising the government's "trick" of splitting the most ambitious measure into a separate decree.

Thousands joined caceroladas (pot-banging protests) across Spain on Thursday organised by tenants' unions demanding approval of both texts. The Tenants' Union Confederation had backed both decrees despite opposing their division into two texts, arguing the first decree's protections should take effect.