A call on Easter Monday, the order of ERC-Bildu and Díaz y Belarra separately: this is how the Housing Law was created in 96 hours

Easter Monday. Holiday in six autonomous communities. Non-school day for students in many territories. Spaniards are still rushing through the Easter vacations. Cell phones have not rung for at least two weeks. Negotiations to unblock the Housing Law are frozen. On stand by, after the Government, through the Vice-Presidency for Economic Affairs, refused to set a structural cap on the price of rents of 3% as requested by ERC and Bildu, a demand seconded by Podemos.

Despite the negotiating silence, Pedro Sanchez days ago that has taken the decision to accelerate the talks, has moved the order to unblock the standard. The Ministry of Transport takes the initiative. Cell phones ring in ERC and Bildu. An express negotiation of 96 hours is opened, which ends on Thursday night.. End to a year of blockade in Congress. “Negotiation is giving up on some things”, sum up the parties involved in it.

The objective of the Government in these four days was to convince ERC and Bildu. Within the coalition, according to sources familiar with the negotiation, despite the fact that it has been an issue that has generated friction and clashes in these three years, it was channeled. “The 18 votes of ERC and EH Bildu were missing, those that make this Housing Law a reality”, as these formations remember. “Either there are caps [on rent] or there is no law”. It was the warning that ERC and Bildu transferred to the Government in the last contacts before the negotiating break. In the Executive they hoped to overcome this reluctance but the common front that the Catalan and Basque nationalists woven, supported by Podemos, was serious. “We present a ceiling. They accepted and then they knocked him down, “they expose from these parties. His proposal was to set a structural cap on the rental price of 3%. Calviño's department offered to set that threshold for only one year and then refer it to a reference index. “They did not want to make that structural cap because they are afraid of angering the powers,” say the PSOE partners.

“No one knew for sure”

What was not possible in a year, a few hours after resuming the negotiation, all parties assume that, now, it is the charm. Of course, people involved in the dialogue confess that until Thursday night, until the agreement was black on white, “nobody was sure”. There was conviction, but also mistrust of one another, increased by the clashes in the negotiation.

The Ministry of Transport team negotiates with ERC and Bildu. It is these three parts that take over and pilot this final phase. who are at the table. the central core. But there are many contacts and conversations around. Pedro Sánchez maintains direct contact with Yolanda Díaz to follow the course of the negotiations, find out and see the issues that had to be closed and explore alternatives. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, maintains dialogue with members of the Government, both from the PSOE and Podemos, and with parliamentary groups in Congress. ERC and Bildu, in turn, maintain a permanent channel with the Ministry of Social Rights, with Minister Ione Belarra, to update her and exchange positions. Negotiation sources state that, in general, Podemos, ERC and Bildu have been aligned and in good harmony.

Belarra has been very involved in the negotiations since Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias agreed to regulate the rent in October 2020. But in this final part, since Sánchez orders the unlocking of the Housing Law to get it approved for the 28-M elections, he was not part of the negotiation. Nor Yolanda Díaz, who in her case has never been a negotiator. They were informed by third parties. Nor because between them, faced by the weight and the way in which Podemos and Sumar can coexist, there was communication. The reins were held by Transport, under the supervision of Economy.

With regard to the negotiation, one of the points that was closed at the last minute, was carried out until the end, was the reduction of the definition of “large holder” from 10 to 5 properties. The areas of tension were also discussed and explored until there was almost no room for negotiation.

Thursday night there was white smoke. Part of the agreement implied that ERC and Bildu would capitalize on the pact. They would be, and were, the ones in charge of announcing and shelling out the Housing Law that Congress will approve. A way to put the “focus” on them and, incidentally, show that the block that supports Pedro Sánchez, despite the friction and clashes, is oiled, active, and with the prospect of understanding it, if necessary, to return to be woven into the future.

Portray the PP

Negotiation sources assume that the Housing Law will be approved before the municipal and regional elections on May 28. “They are in a hurry more than us,” they slip in reference to the Government. “Deadlines are not going to be a problem”. And it is that the claim of La Moncloa is that this regulation, surely the last great law of the coalition -or one of the last- serves as ammunition for the political campaign. Not only for using the rent cap as an argument, but for using rents and the declaration of areas of tension as a political and dialectical weapon against the PP.

The norm gives the tool to declare stressed areas when any of the following circumstances occurs: that the average charge of the cost of the mortgage or rent plus basic expenses and supplies exceeds 30% of the average household income; or that prices have risen more than 3 percentage points above the CPI, in the last five years. But requesting the declaration of a stressed area is a power of the communities or town halls. It must be your initiative. and it's not required. It's a tool. They may not do so and the law does not establish binding mechanisms.

Therefore, the norm will also serve the Government, the PSOE, to confront the PP, since communities such as Madrid or Andalusia have already anticipated that they will not apply the law. Sánchez’s pretension is that the approval of this norm allows him to confront the PP, to try to make their regional presidents portray themselves. The socialists will rely on this norm to open a flank of attack to the PP, exposing that people living in regions governed by the PP will not be able to benefit from these measures in the rent.