The discussion is simple: Is the first housing law of democracy, approved yesterday by Congress, is it “centralizing or enabling”? In other words, does it take away the autonomy to operate in regulating the sector from the communities and town halls – holders of exclusive jurisdiction in the matter – or does it provide them with new mechanisms for better control of the market? The electoral pre-campaign, which marks the activity of Congress these days, and the lightning movement of ERC and Bildu, agreeing with the coalition government on the final text of the norm, yesterday provided an image that had not been seen since before October 1 of 2017: the PNV, the PDECat and Junts offered a joint press appearance to explain their vote against the norm. “What unites us is the defense of self-government,” said Aitor Esteban, a spokesman for the PNV, criticizing the role of ERC and Bildu. “It is not a good lawâ€, summed up MÃriam Nogueras, from Junts, who pointed out that the regulation will not be effective and its existence “disavows the Government of Cataloniaâ€. According to the spokeswoman, the Spanish government “has entered our house and has done so without forcing the door, because that door has been opened by Esquerra.” Ferran Bel added that the PDECat summed up the dilemma: “If we have exclusive jurisdiction, why are we approving a law that sets the twenty goals of housing policies?”
The paradox is that the leader of the PP himself, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, appealed to self-government and regional powers to defend the no of the PP: “When we hear the central government talk about housing without recognizing that public land belongs to the municipalities and that they are the communities that execute the house, it is a lack of respect to the public administrationsâ€, he assured.
Both Pilar Vallugera, from Esquerra, and Oskar Matute, from EH Bildu, denied such invasion of powers, and even the deputy from the nationalist party assured that, quite contrary to what the nationalist right-wing maintains, it improves the capacities of the autonomous administrations and municipalities to deal with the housing problem. His is the phrase: “It is not a centralizing law, it is an enabling law.”
The law had 176 votes in favor and 167 votes against, including that of the CUP. The state right in full, the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos, rejected the law as interventionist and inefficient, the seed of the real estate bubble.
The PSOE, UP and Más PaÃs, on the other hand, contrasted the productive and unproductive economy, in this case, rentierism. “We are changing the paradigm, the neoliberal model that brought speculation, corruption and a lot of social pain, and laying the foundations for a new housing policy”, stressed the president, Pedro Sánchez, contravening the neoliberal slogans on the liberalization of land that, recalling Aznarism, brandished the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos, and turning a deaf ear to the sticks that the Catalan and Basque left and right shared. A new and at the same time familiar landscape that greens before the agonies of 28-M.
