Leaked chats reveal Ábalos and Pedro Sánchez fighting Podemos over a few votes, with rental housing in the middle.

OKDiario claims to have published conversations between Pedro Sánchez and José Luis Ábalos in which the former asks the latter not to give ground to Podemos on rent control. In the background is the question that decides housing prices: how much a government can regulate and how much is left to the market.

**OKDiario** has published what it presents as conversations between **Pedro Sánchez** and **José Luis Ábalos** about rent control. In one of them, Sánchez asks the latter not to give ground: “Do not give ground on rent control.”

## What the leaked messages say

The exchange is between two **PSOE** figures: what emerges is not a technical proposal or a figure, but a warning not to move from that position.

There is no independent confirmation that the chats are authentic, so what is known is what the outlet publishing them claims.

## The rent cap divides the government

The rent cap protects the tenant already in place and can discourage the owner from putting the flat on the market.

The standoff is against **Podemos**, the **PSOE**'s coalition partner in the government.

## Why the leak matters

A leaked internal conversation is political ammunition: it puts in writing who defended what and conditions the subsequent negotiation.

It should be treated with caution: the chats are not the same as the rule eventually approved, and their authenticity has not been verified by a source outside the outlet.

KEY POINTS
- **OKDiario** is the outlet publishing the chats attributed to Pedro Sánchez and José Luis Ábalos.
- The sentence summarising the instruction is “Do not give ground on rent control,” according to that information.
- **Pedro Sánchez** and **José Luis Ábalos** belong to the PSOE.
- **Podemos** appears as the party that instruction seeks to stand up to.
- The authenticity of the conversations has not been confirmed by an independent source.