The PNV spokesperson in Congress, Aitor Esteban, warned almost a year ago, in the month of April of the last political year, that his party did not like the Housing Law at all, understanding that it invaded Basque powers in this area. subject. A month later, Congress approved the new rule and, after an unsuccessful negotiation with the central government, the Basque Executive ended up appealing this rule to the Constitutional Court, for “invasion of jurisdiction.”
The decision, which comes just when the negotiation period ends, has obvious political implications for the elections on April 21 and the recently begun pre-campaign. The Basque Government has decided to take this step encouraged by the jeltzale wing of the Executive (this mandate represented by eight councilors out of a total of eleven) and against the criteria of the socialist part (three councillors). The socialists have also been in charge of managing the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport during the legislature that is coming to an end.
The issue, likewise, is one of those that most concerns Basque society; Specifically, it usually appears as the third concern of Basques. Not in vain, Bilbao and Donostia/San Sebastián always appear among the five capitals with the highest prices per square meter, both for purchase and rental, and something similar occurs in other medium-sized Basque towns.
The PNV has alluded to the jurisdiction factor from the beginning, without going into the substance of the matter: the State has no jurisdiction over housing, they say. “We are not talking about the content of the law but about respect for the competency framework,” they indicate from the jeltzale training.
“Parliament urged the Basque Government by a majority to prepare a report on whether the law respected the scope of jurisdiction. The legal services pointed out a series of articles that violated the distribution of powers and what the Government has done is what it was committed to by the Government program, which is to defend Basque self-government,” explained PNV parliamentarian Iñigo Iturrate in Basque Wave.
The appeal to the Constitutional Court presented by the Basque Government, once “all possibility of agreement” has been exhausted, appeals to a total of seven articles of the State Law, 12/2023, a transitional provision, an additional provision and two final provisions, from the perspective that it “violates the powers of Euskadi”, which has had its Housing Law since 2015.
Faced with this position, the PSE maintains that the state law does not violate Basque powers, but rather comes to develop the Basque Housing Law, approved with the votes of EH Bildu, PSE and Podemos, and with the vote against the PNV. “The PNV defends the banks and large holders before defending society,” said Eneko Andueza, leader of the Basque socialists and candidate for lehendakari.
For the moment, the Jeltzales have avoided a confrontation with their partners on the matter, contextualizing these differences “within the normality of a coalition government that has functioned without fanfare and that has resolved its problems without being in the fray all day.” The bet of PNV and PSE, not in vain, is to continue their alliance after the elections on April 21.
In any case, it is more than foreseeable that the housing issue will become one of the issues of the pre-campaign. EH Bildu has also taken a position on the matter, defending the norm approved in Congress. The Abertzale coalition maintains that the appeal to “competitive invasion” is an excuse on the part of the Jeltzales, who in reality position themselves against the state norm due to their ideological position against intervening in the housing market and limiting rents.
The PNV, meanwhile, has been denouncing that it is “at least contradictory that a sovereigntist and pro-independence group opens the door for the State to be able for the first time to implement and sanction housing policies that even the Constitutional Court had stopped.” The debate is over and EH Bildu, which called the media this Monday to discuss this issue, seems willing to express this issue.
