Ábalos Offers Podemos A Stricter Ban On Evictions

The pulse between the partners of the Government for the prohibition of evictions has jumped from the public stage at the discretion of the backstage.

Discarded the surprise amendment to the Budgets agreed by United Podemos with ERC and EH Bildu, which convulsed the Executive last week, the two parties are now negotiating a decree law that would be approved by the Council of Ministers.

The Department of Transportation, led by the socialist José Luis Ábalos, proposes a stricter ban on evictions until the end of the state of alarm.

After the public shock, the internal negotiation. The PSOE is willing to promote tougher standards to prevent evictions, as long as it is a consensual measure and approved by the entire Government by decree. And United We can renounce the path that so irritated its partners to resort to an amendment to the Budgets.

The talks began this Thursday with a meeting between the secretary general of the Urban and Housing Agenda, David Lucas, and the number two of Pablo Iglesias, the secretary of state for the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra.

The two parties were satisfied with the meeting, and Iglesias himself announced that the decree “will not take more than two weeks.” But the negotiations will still continue in the coming days, and Unidos Podemos has not raised the pressure to start all possible concessions from the PSOE in a matter that is especially sensitive for its electorate.

A decree of last March, valid until January 31, has already banned evictions as long as those affected are “in a situation of social or economic vulnerability that has occurred as a consequence” of the COVID-19 crisis.

As requested the formation of churches in the controversial amendment, the Ábalos ministry, with powers over housing, is willing to extend the moratorium to situations of economic vulnerability prior to the health crisis.

In the United We Can agreement with ERC and Bildu, it was demanded that the measure be in force until the end of 2022.

The Department of Housing proposed this Thursday to its interlocutors from the Vice Presidency of Churches that the term – extendable, in any case – be limit to the validity of the current state of alarm, until May 9. It is one of the issues that remain pending for negotiation.

Housing has proposed another novelty: that the social services of the municipalities and autonomous communities certify the situations of social vulnerability. Until now, it was the interested parties themselves who had to accredit it, which left more leeway for the judges to make the decision to authorize a launch or not.

The department of Ábalos also intends to involve these social services in the search for another home for people under threat of being evicted.

Iglesias claimed this Thursday his performance in this matter, despite the uproar created in the Executive. “Sometimes the discrepancies are translated into positive measures for the people,” he said during an appearance in Congress, where he also advocated “consolidating a culture of coalition government in Spain.”

The Iglesias team will also negotiate with another vice presidency in the hands of the PSOE, that of the Ecological Transition, the prohibition of cuts in basic supplies to homes, one of the requirements agreed with ERC and Bildu.