Spain's parliament rejects housing bill as protests continue

Spain's parliament has narrowly voted down a pair of emergency government decrees aiming to quell widespread protests against rising rental costs for housing.

Hundreds of protesters were gathered outside the parliament in Madrid amid the marathon debate culminating in a pair of votes on Friday. They yelled "shame" and "your profits, our misery," as news of the measures being quashed filtered through. 

Spain has been gripped by protests for around a week, including a tent city set up in central Madrid, ignited by the eviction of an 87-year-old pensioner from her apartment that threw the more longstanding issue of unaffordable housing costs into sharp focus.

Why and how did the emergency decrees fail? 

Left-leaning Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez leads a minority government in Spain and so relies on opposition support to legislate. 

Sanchez spoke at the close of a marathon 5-hour debate in the Chamber of Deputies ahead of the vote, urging members: "Do the right thing, or history will judge you, and sooner than you think." 

One Catalan party that sometimes supports Sanchez's government, the economically right-leaning Junts group, joined the opposition in voting down the measures. 

The first emergency decree, which the government said would stop evictions of vulnerable people, make real estate speculation harder and provide tax incentives to encourage renting, failed by a narrow margin of 178-172. 

The second decree, which sought to make residential leases automatically renewable by tenants, fell further short of a majority at 184-166.

Opponents to the measures argued, among other things, that they risked compounding the situation by reducing housing supply.

Some also argued that Sanchez should respond to the deadlock by calling early elections, possibly initiating a wholesale change of government. 

What did protesters say after the vote? 

The Tenants' Union which had led protests across Spain said it would press on with plans for more mass rallies on Saturday, aiming to continue heaping pressure on the coalition and opposition alike. 

"The encampment will continue and will continue expanding to other neighborhoods," Tenants' Union spokesperson Alicia del Rio said. "We're aiming for a general strike." 

The current wave of protests, albeit concerning an issue that's been bubbling away near the surface for years, was triggered by the high-profile eviction of 87-year-old Madrid resident Maricarmen Abascal from the apartment she had occupied for almost all of her life.

How tough is Spain's housing market? 

The investment company owning Abascal's building reversed the measure in her case this week but only after the issue had become a symbol of growing frustration of housing costs. 

Rents have roughly doubled in Spain in the last decade and young people, facing one of Europe's toughest labor markets for school-leavers and graduates, frequently live with their parents past the age of 30. 

"People have said 'enough is enough;' this ⁠cannot ​go on. The housing problem must be resolved; structural measures must be taken, and this cannot ​continue," Abascal's lawyer, Beatriz Duro, said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

The next step after Friday's failed vote in parliament is difficult to identify. Sanchez has so far ruled out calling early elections. He could try to formulate another emergency decree or decrees in response to the protests, but any such move would need to overcome the same hurdles in parliament. 

Edited by: Zac Crellin

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