Spain's housing hypocrisy: Sánchez government turns to the funds it demonised

The Spanish Government has turned to investment funds to boost affordable housing through Spain Crece, the instrument managed by the ICO, after demonising "vulture funds" and property owners. The contradiction adds to the case of Socialist spokesperson Montse Mínguez, whose partner controls at least thirty rental properties, according to revelations by 'Artículo 14' and 'El Español'.

The Government has decided to turn to investment funds to drive the construction of affordable housing through **Spain Crece**, the financial instrument managed by the **ICO**. The initiative amounts to a first-order political U-turn. After demonising "vulture funds", branding smaller funds "scavenger firms" and portraying property owners as responsible for the housing crisis, **Pedro Sánchez** now admits he needs private capital to tackle a problem his own Government created and is unable to solve.

## Eight years of rhetoric and a structural deficit

The hypocrisy would be less scandalous if it were not accompanied by such a dismal record. Spain suffers from a structural housing shortage, while subsidised construction remains at historic lows, incompatible with the needs of a society that cannot find a home.

After eight years at the Moncloa, Sánchez can no longer blame others exclusively for the consequences of his own policies. Legal uncertainty, rent controls and the absence of an effective strategy to mobilise land have all helped deter investment.

That the Government should now discover the virtues of funds shows that reality eventually prevails over propaganda. Public-private collaboration is essential to expand the housing supply. What is blameworthy is not the U-turn itself, but having turned investors into public enemies to feed an ideological narrative that harmed the very people it claimed to protect.

## The case of the Socialist spokesperson in Lleida

One particularly damaging case is that of Socialist spokesperson **Montse Mínguez**. According to revelations by '**Artículo 14**' and '**El Español**', her partner, **Sergi Vélez**, controls a property network with at least **thirty rental dwellings**.

In **2017**, Mínguez chaired a Lleida city council board that approved a planning change related to a development by her partner. The facts demand explanations. Those who set out to lecture others on housing sarracena should start by clearing up doubts about their own conduct.

## The double standard that goes beyond housing

This incoherence goes beyond housing. The late **Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba** warned that those who do not live as they think end up thinking as they live. Sánchez's Socialism offers too many examples: leaders who fight against private-subsidised schooling while educating their own children privately, self-proclaimed feminists accused of harassment, abolitionists of prostitution who use its services.

The problem is not choosing those options, but condemning them when others make them. The case of **Maricarmen**, turned into an electoral weapon, illustrates this double standard. While **Óscar López** denounced her eviction, his ministry rejected the appeal of another **Muface** tenant, a neighbour of that woman. It is no surprise that even tenants' organisations have denounced such incoherence.

Public credibility demands coherence, transparency and accountability. Precisely what the Government demands of others and so often fails to display itself.