The Spanish government's housing decrees do not convince: "We will not be anyone's election campaign"

PalmaThe new housing measures approved this Tuesday by the Spanish government have not convinced the Mallorca Tenants' Union, nor the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), nor the people maintaining the housing encampment at Plaça d'Espanya in Palma. The three organizations acknowledge that the measures may provide some relief for those affected, but they consider them insufficient to solve the underlying problem.

The spokesperson for the Mallorca Tenants' Union, Celeste Rodríguez, has reiterated her criticism of what is known as the 'Maricarmen decree' and recalled that, according to their interpretation, the initial proposal was "chopped up" with the aim of preventing one of the main demands from prospering: indefinite rental contracts. "For us, the measures we proposed were already a minimum scenario," noted Rodríguez, in reference to the actions that the union considers necessary to "alleviate the dramatic situation of thousands of tenants in the short term."

In this sense, she considers that the approval of the first decree by the Permanent Deputation does not pose any obstacle to the demands of the tenants' movement. "It does not mean any stop to our claims," she defended. The goal of the union, she explained, is to go beyond the approved measures and "end the rentier business" to guarantee "the effective right to decent housing for everyone." For this reason, Rodríguez has announced that they will continue with the mobilizations and working on the preparation of a general housing strike, which she demands to be "massive, transversal, and historic."

The PAH: "It is not enough"

The PAH also considers that the approved measures are a positive step, but insufficient. "It is good that they are making the Housing Decree-Law, but we consider that it is not enough," the organization has pointed out.

The main criticism from the PAH is that part of the measures has a limited duration. As it explains, the protections may allow for temporarily stopping evictions or certain contract terminations, but the problem will reappear when the established period ends. "For the moment they are stopping evictions, contract terminations, et cetera. But it is two years. Once these two years pass, we will be back in the same situation," it has warned.

For this reason, the entity demands that the Spanish government adopt measures that permanently guarantee that people can maintain their housing. "We want firmer laws so that they cannot be undone," it has defended.

The PAH also questions what might happen if there is a change of executive and the measures cease to have effect. "And what if there is a change of government? Will people find themselves unprotected once again?", the organization poses. In this sense, it considers that any government, regardless of political affiliation, should assume the commitment that people do not have to suffer in order to maintain a home they can afford.

The Palma encampment: "We will not be anyone's election campaign"

The housing camp in Palma also considers that the measures are arriving late and in the middle of an electoral context. "We are worried that Sánchez will use housing again to make announcements when elections are approaching, after years of not taking the necessary measures," they point out. For the activists, tenants do not need electoral promises, but solutions: rents continue to be unaffordable and the decrees are insufficient. They demand lowering rent prices, guaranteeing stable contracts, and placing limits on vulture funds and large property owners.

In this sense, they argue that the decrees have been approved again because "we have pressured" and not as a gift from the Spanish government. They consider the rectification to be good news, but they insist that "recovering them is progress, but it is not enough" and that the residential emergency remains intact. For this reason, they demand maintaining pressure on the streets to achieve "much more forceful" measures and warn that Pedro Sánchez cannot turn the decrees into "electoral propaganda".

The encampment also demands the calling of a general strike following the announcement by CCOO and UGT, which they interpret as a consequence of accumulated social pressure. "We have forced the strike," they maintain, and argue that it cannot be limited to "a day off work, a festive day, or a protest and then everyone goes home." In their view, it must be "massive" and it must serve to elevate the mobilization and achieve new rights, not to deactivate it or become "an electoral campaign act for the PSOE."

Faced with the early elections, the activists believe that the new political scenario must serve to strengthen the mobilization and put housing at the center. "We do not want electoral promises, we want measures," they remark. And they make it clear that they do not intend to link their demands to any party: "Our mobilization does not belong to any party. We will not be anyone's electoral campaign." "Whoever governs," they add, they will continue in the streets until they achieve "real solutions" to the housing emergency.

Unions set a date for the general strike for housing

Around a hundred people called by CCOO and UGT gathered this Tuesday in front of the Parliament to demand that the Balearic Islands be declared a stressed area. The general secretary of CCOO in the Balearic Islands, José Luis García, warned that housing and salaries "go hand in hand" and denounced that the increase in wages "has been eaten up" by the rising cost of housing. "We must put people at the center and not speculation," he claimed.

The secretary of Equality and Social Policies of UGT, María José Cordero, described the situation as "critical" and assured that "having a job does not mean being able to live." Cordero announced that the general strike to demand the right to decent housing will take place during the first week of November and called on unions, citizens, and organizations to join in.