Junts will not back Spain's housing decrees

Junts tells tenants' union it will not back the decrees

The spokesperson of the tenants' union took the stage at the Plaça Catalunya encampment to announce that Junts will not support the housing decrees. The news, captured in a video broadcast by Cadena SER, turned a protest rally into the showcase of a parliamentary blockade. The tenants' union is left without Junts' backing. And the government, without the votes that allowed it to push through its rental legislation package. The announcement was made in a square full of tents.

What do the decrees Junts will not back include?

The Prime Minister himself had summed up the content in a public message: the decrees serve to curb speculation, make access to a first home easier, promote affordable rents and stop evictions. The official defence is emphatic —"this government will not take a single step back in its fight for the right to housing"— and that firmness is precisely what is now being measured against Junts' refusal. A package that mixes rental market intervention, home purchase assistance and protection against evictions. Four measures and a partner that says no.

Splitting the decree and the alibi narrative

From the socialist wing of the government comes another reading. A minister argued that, had the decree not been split up, there would have been doubt over whether Junts might have approved some measures separately; by dividing it, "they have shown their true colours, for real." In other words: splitting it does not weaken the government, it exposes the other side. Not everyone sees it that way. Some argue that the PSOE has missed the chance to demonize Junts as it would with the PP and VOX, and is left with a comfortable alibi: we tried, and the right and the far right refused. Two narratives, one outcome. The difference is who appears responsible to the voter who pays rent every month.

The encampment: celebration, bewilderment and criticism of the staging

The reaction in the square was mixed. One participant celebrated the halt by announcing a fast for the trinc day —"what joy when they told me there would be no decree"— as if the blockade were the victory. Others did not even know there was an encampment: they found out from the news, a sign of how little traction the call had. And a third current debated the staging: people sitting on the ground, without the tension attributed to the classic repertoire of street protest. The comparison with the sans panderottes, the segadors and the comuneros was the core of the criticism, which was not about substance, but about the posture.

Who pays the political cost of the blockade

This is where the narrative gets stuck. In the thread, speculation runs that a few MPs from another group might vote the wrong way, just enough to pass certain measures, "who knows in exchange for what" —an unproven insinuation circulating among participants—. The government's official version, on the other hand, holds the opposite: that the blockade exposes Junts.

What is clear is the immediate effect: a square with tents, a spokesperson breaking the news and a package of rental measures hanging by a thread. Supporters of the blockade celebrate. The tenants who were waiting for the aid, not yet. And no one has yet explained how this gets unblocked without someone losing face.