Spanish Parliament Rejects Sánchez’s Emergency Housing Decrees

Overview

• The Cámara Baja voted down two government decrees on Friday, Oct. 2, removing Cabinet‑issued emergency rules that would have suspended evictions, extended and renewed leases, and limited purchases of homes by investment funds.
• Junts joined the opposition in both votes and their switch was decisive for the government defeat, leaving Sánchez’s PSOE‑Sumar minority unable to carry the measures through Parliament.
• Large protests spread on Saturday, Oct. 3, to more than 50 cities as tens of thousands demonstrated in Madrid and other towns; some rallies turned confrontational in Valencia where police used rubber bullets and tear gas.
• The eviction of 87‑year‑old Maricarmen Abascal remains the symbol that triggered the mobilization and her case saw a temporary negotiated return to her home after public pressure on the buyer Urbagestión.
• Longer‑term problems persist: official data and market indexes show steep home and rent prices and a projected shortfall of hundreds of thousands to about a million homes by 2028, making durable legislative solutions necessary and politically fraught.