The left demands the Government to use the "tools" it has against speculation

PalmaThe Spanish government has responded to social protests over the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal and has announced the approval, this Tuesday, of a new housing decree. However, in the Islands, the left has pressured Marga Prohens' Executive because it is not applying the Housing Law that is already in force, which could help limit rental prices if areas were declared as stressed housing market zones. The Popular Party has always flatly refused, but the PSIB candidate, Rosario Sánchez, has insisted that the Government already has "tools to mitigate speculation," and MÉS per Mallorca has demanded that it "stop the bleeding" of housing by applying the regulations in force.

The PSIB candidate has claimed that Maricarmen's case, which took place in Madrid but has become a symbol of the housing crisis, represents a "turning point." In the same vein, she recalled that on the Islands there are many people facing eviction, as well as professionals who see themselves "forced" to leave the Islands or retirees who cannot afford the high costs of housing with their pensions, while the Government "allows this to happen." "You are either with the people or with the vulture funds," she insisted. Thus, she has demanded that Prohens apply the state housing law, or the Balearic housing law, which makes it possible to expropriate empty apartments from large holders.

For his part, the general coordinator of MÉS per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, has spoken in the same terms, in addition to insisting that it declare the Islands a stressed residential market zone, and that it adopt "decisive" measures in the face of what he considers a "bleeding" and a "social emergency" in terms of housing. "Normal people cannot buy or rent, what else is needed to declare a stressed zone?" he asked. In a press conference at the Parliament, he also defended the need for the state decree law on housing to go ahead because, as he said, the Spanish government has a sufficient parliamentary majority.

The Government: "It's a supply problem"

The Minister of Housing, José Luis Mateo, has considered Maricarmen's eviction a "situation to be regretted" and has declared his "respect" for the demonstrations. "We all know the challenge we are facing, and even Europe seems, at last, to have opened its eyes and is trying to provide solutions," he said in reference to the affordable housing proposal presented by the European Commission. However, he rejected that "the situation can be solved overnight with a decree-law that is not agreed upon nor do we know how it will be agreed upon". He defended that the housing crisis "is a problem of supply" that "is not solved with miraculous decree-laws": "From the first day we have worked to increase the supply in the Islands". This Monday the Government has presented a project for a new development of 23 public protection homes for rent in Llucmajor.

Vox says that Sánchez wants to perpetuate himself in government "like a tick"

The Vox spokesperson in Parliament, Manuela Cañadas, has considered that the housing decree announced by the Spanish government has been promoted "in electoral times", that it will have "no benefit" for citizens and that its objective is for the PSOE to be able to "cling like a tick to Moncloa". She has also spoken in favor of "building more housing, mobilizing land, accelerating licenses, and reducing bureaucracy that delays new developments".