On the left, Pedro Sánchez is able to proclaim thirty times in two hours the failure of the neoliberalism of the PP. On the right, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has written on the frontispiece of his project to repeal Sanchism. The electoral dispute is the death certificate of State pacts and goes far beyond the distribution of power. From justice to education and… That the first housing law of democracy be approved in the middle of the campaign and with the president of the Spanish Government caricatured by the right as “Pedro the builder” on account of the advertisements with tens of thousands of social protection apartments give hints of the future that awaits the new rule. Tumultuous and conditioned by the color of the current government of the autonomous communities.
Where Sánchez sees a social democratic way to regulate rent, Feijóo denounces more “sensitivity” with the employer than with the owner. But the vote on the Housing law hides other battles. The “milestone of the legislature”, according to Sánchez, has taken 40 years to see the light of day – previous regulation was through Felipe González’s urban leases law or José MarÃa Aznar’s land law – and 450 days of negotiation have been needed with partners With the appearance in the courtyard of the Congress, the president limits the role of his coalition partners, leaves aside the demands of Unides Podemos and enters the division of sovereignty, with ERC and Bildu determined not to lose the seal of preferred partner and reliable for the next legislature.
The pro-independence left clings to the “first step”, the “paradigm change”, which Sánchez is promoting in the face of a PP that disputes his victory on 28-M and in the December general elections. At the same time, the other part of the political periphery takes place: the PNB, Junts, the PDECat and even the BNG, which ended up abstaining. The PNB strikes a balance with its vote against: it confronts the PSOE and denounces an attempt to recentralize powers in the Basque government managed by the socialist, Iñaki Arriola. For its part, Junts is once again taking a photo with the Basque nationalists to pretend to be a fortress in defense of Catalan self-government.
The discourse of the post-convergent confrontation is now turning towards the defense of the statutory powers, converted into a red line, and will have continuity in the processing of the social services law. The Junts executive is advancing the idea that it is necessary to go beyond speeches with an eye on the next legislature and with the intention of bringing performance to a parliamentary group that can swing majorities. With the PDECat moving towards the exit door of Congress, Junts predicts that after the next elections it could have more than eight deputies and dispute the fish in the cave in ERC.
The Generalitat, with different tenants in the Palau, has approved more than 24 laws or decree-laws that affect housing, many of which have been appealed by the central government in turn before the Constitutional Court. Catalonia and the Basque Country already comply, for example, with the new requirements on official protection housing. In Euskadi, since 2003 all sheltered housing that is built has been permanently sheltered, while in Madrid in 2013 almost 3,000 social housing was illegally sold to an investment fund. Can self-government be defended with the PP and Vox?
The post-convergent ranks admit the difficulty of explaining how an alleged competition invasion with Isabel DÃaz Ayuso can be denounced, while ERC and Bildu support a law accompanied by a catalog of winning ads for Sánchez. And the Republicans are vindicating themselves. Gabriel Rufián maintains that “Catalan and Basque right-wing nationalism negotiated for 40 years with different governments in favor of their interests”, while “Catalan and Basque left-wing independence negotiates with the Government in favor of the people”. The rest, he concludes, is “the noise and the lies that this entails”.
With the successive electoral campaigns, the pro-independence dispute begins in the area of ​​municipal management, will advance towards the management of self-government with the drought and will end in the general elections with a competition of who has the best negotiating know-how. That is if Junts, with the future of Laura Borràs resolved, decides to take advantage of the convergent gene instead of selling the house and renting it out.
