Spain suspends evictions after protests over eviction of 87-year-old woman from flat

Spain’s coalition government has approved new housing measures after protests over the country’s housing crisis erupted after an 87-year-old lady was evicted from her house in Madrid last week.

Ministers discussed the plans on Tuesday, which include a prohibition on evictions until 2030.

The changes were announced by Health Minister Mónica García, who said they would mean relief for more than five million people. But the deal “left small landlords out in the cold”, said opposition legislator Míriam Nogueras.

The recommendations, made through two decrees, take effect immediately, but must be approved by Congress within a month, although the government expects the vote to be held as soon as this Friday.

Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing coalition administration lacks a majority in parliament and has failed to get right-leaning parties to support prior decrees.

In April, right-leaning parties defeated a decree trying to extend rental contracts.

Other agreed measures on Tuesday include the rolling over of contracts until 2028, the tougher regulation of short-term and room rentals and barring the purchase of properties by investment corporations, García of the Sumar alliance stated.“It’s time to intervene in the speculative housing market and begin to balance ordinary citizens and vulture funds,” García stated.
Of the protests she said: “Thank you for the mobilizations, for the encampments. Without you, it would not have been possible.

“We all agreed that evictions – when the property is owned by a fund, a vulture fund, managed by someone who manages millions of euros – obviously have to stop,” said Nogueras, spokesperson for the center-right Catalan nationalists of Junts party.”It is a mistake to lump together in this category those who have invested their savings in a flat, a restaurant or a property – to put them all in the same basket,” she told Spanish public radio RTVE.

The minority administration, made up of Sánchez’s Socialists and the junior partner Sumar alliance, has 30 days from the publication of the decrees to achieve an agreement in parliament.

Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez has called all major parties to back the orders after last week’s eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal.Congress has the opportunity to remind Maricarmen that her suffering was not in vain… and many others will profit from her fight,” she said.

But Valeria Racu, a spokesman for the Madrid Tenants’ Union, claimed the fight was “only just beginning” and urged for further rallies across Spain next weekend.We are all looking at the wording, at the small print to ensure that this is the Maricarmen decree,” added Alicia del Río, another representative for the organization.