Spanish protesters march on Parliament as emergency housing decrees are set to be rejected

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s government looks set to lose two key votes it needs to ratify a package of emergency measures aimed at tackling the nation’s housing affordability crisis when lawmakers convene on Friday, while protesters march on the Parliament demanding help for renters.

The Catalan separatist party Junts — essential for the approval of the two government decrees — said in a statement Friday morning that it will vote against them. That appears to have doomed the measures when combined with the “No” from the center-right Popular Party and far-right Vox.

The likely defeat sparked speculation in Spanish media that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez could consider bringing forward elections from next year. Sánchez didn’t speak when he arrived at the chamber in downtown Madrid, where protesters in favor of the measures had gathered outside. His office did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press regarding a possible snap election.

The measures were intended to quell a public uproar following the televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman last week in Madrid that sparked protests and a camp-in that has occupied Madrid’s most important square ever since. Barring a surprise, the progressive coalition of Sánchez will suffer a costly legislative defeat that will likely fan the flames of the protests.

The elderly woman whose eviction sparked the protests, Maricarmen Abascal, has become a symbol for the fight for lower housing costs in the southern European country, where many people are priced out of buying a home and are being squeezed by a small rental market.

The company that evicted her finally caved under immense public and political pressure this week and said that she can return to the apartment. Abascal is currently in a hospital since being removed from her home on a stretcher, but her lawyer said she is happy to know she will be going home.

Spain’s 350-seat Parliament started its session at 11 a.m.

The first decree is meant to stop evictions of vulnerable people like Abascal, make real estate speculation harder, impose tighter restrictions on short-term leases and provide tax incentives to encourage renting and the construction of housing.

The second decree is more controversial. It proposes to make leases automatically renew when they are set to expire, essentially making them indefinite. A property owner would have to pay a tenant 12 months of rent to break the contract.

Junts argued that the government’s housing measures would lead to higher housing costs by reducing the supply of available properties and would fail to stop speculators. It urged the government to reconsider its measures.

Junts is one of a group of small parties that Sánchez needed to woo when he formed a new government in 2023 and has proven to be a prickly political partner ever since. Its leader, the separatist Carles Puigdemont, has resided in Belgium since fleeing Spain after leading a failed bid to make northeastern Catalonia an independent nation in 2017.