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Source: Congreso - Canal Parlamento
Congress repeals Royal Decree-Law 8/2026 and rejects Catalan investment consortium
The Editor, based on what President of Congress said
The full Congress repealed Royal Decree-Law 8/2026 with 177 votes against, 166 in favour and 5 abstentions, scrapping the two-year extension and the 2% rent cap that had been in force since 20 March 2026. The nearly 3 million tenants covered by the measure immediately lose their contractual protections and are exposed to unlimited rent increases. It remains to be seen whether the government will introduce new legislation before the contracts of tenants who had already activated the extension expire.
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Minister for Social Rights defends rental extension ahead of imminent parliamentary repeal
The Editor, based on what Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 said
The Minister for Social Rights defended Royal Decree-Law 8/2026 before the full chamber, detailing that 13 investment funds and property companies manage more than 100,000 rental homes, that 6% of the rental stock is held by multi-landlords or legal entities, and that the number of owner-occupier households has fallen by 22% over 14 years while large landlords have quadrupled their portfolios. The decree establishes a mandatory two-year extension and a 2% update cap, with projected savings of between €600 and €700 a month per household in cities such as Valencia, Málaga, Seville and Madrid. The debate did not resolve whether the government has an alternative majority to pass an equivalent text before the contracts of tenants who had already activated the extension from 22 March 2026 expire.
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ERC tables bill in Congress to create bilateral investment consortium with Catalonia
The Editor, based on what Esquerra Republicana de Cataluña (ERC) said
The Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya MP presented the private member's bill to establish an investment consortium between the central government and the Generalitat of Catalonia, with powers to adopt corrective measures when budget execution falls short and with an instrumental commercial company to speed up procurement. ERC grounded the initiative in the third additional provision of the Estatut, which requires state investment in Catalonia to be proportional to the region's share of GDP, and framed it as a product of its investiture agreement with the PSC. The bill was addressed explicitly to Junts, whose position was decisive to the arithmetic of the vote, without ERC securing their support.
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Junts announces vote against rental decree citing five specific legal defects
The Editor, based on what Junts per Catalunya said
The Junts per Catalunya spokesperson in the debate on Royal Decree-Law 8/2026 set out five legal irregularities: the mandatory two-year extension does not condition its activation on the tenant being up to date with payments; the landlord-necessity exemption is inapplicable because the Supreme Court requires it to be included in the original contract; the 2% cap is arbitrary relative to the IRAP index (then at 2.11%); the wording harms small landlords in Catalonia's stressed-market zones, contrary to its stated aim; and the three-year extension under the Housing Act creates systemic legal uncertainty. Junts proposed instead direct tax deductions for tenants, greater flexibility in public housing procurement, and an amendment to the Civil Code allowing holders of mortgages sold to investment funds to redeem them at the transfer price. It remains unanswered whether the government will incorporate any of these technical demands into a new legislative text.
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Junts rejects ERC investment consortium and demands direct payment of state debt to Catalonia
The Editor, based on what Junts per Catalunya said
The Junts per Catalunya MP announced the party's vote against ERC's consortium bill, arguing that the proposed body would leave decision-making authority with the central government and that Madrid receives, in some years, double the investment it is entitled to while Catalonia receives less than half of its share. Junts rejected the consortium as an instrument that institutionalises territorial subordination rather than demanding direct payment of the funds owed. The Junts MP did not quantify the exact amount of the debt claimed or specify the reference budget year in which Madrid is said to have received double its entitlement.
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Congress repeals Royal Decree-Law 8/2026 and rejects Catalan investment consortium
The Editor, based on what President of Congress said
The repeal of Royal Decree-Law 8/2026, passed on 20 March 2026, confirms Pedro Sánchez's government's inability to hold its parliamentary majority on housing policy. The decree fell by a margin of 11 votes (177 against, 166 in favour, 5 abstentions, out of 348 cast), arithmetic that reflects Junts's refusal to back it — a decisive vote after the party had already blocked an earlier version of the same text. The session also saw the defeat of ERC's private member's bill to establish a State-Generalitat investment consortium (168 in favour, 181 against, no abstentions, out of 349 votes cast), exposing the fragmentation of the Catalan bloc that had underpinned the investiture. Vox's bill on the protection of looked-after children was also rejected, with 33 votes in favour, 178 against and 138 abstentions.
The repeal leaves the government without any tool to contain the rental market until, and if, it introduces new legislation. Junts had set out five specific technical flaws — the absence of a requirement for tenants to be up to date with payments before activating the extension, an inapplicable landlord-necessity exemption, the arbitrary nature of the 2% cap relative to the IRAP index (then at 2.11%), incompatibility with stressed-market zones under the Housing Act, and a conflict with the three-year extension under that same law — and announced its vote against before the final debate. The rift between ERC and Junts, also visible in the consortium vote, narrows the government's room for manoeuvre on any legislative initiative requiring Catalan support. The next flashpoint will be the presentation of the General State Budget, where both parties will maintain irreconcilable positions on territorial investment.
"Votes cast: 348. In favour: 166. Against: 177. Abstentions: five. The Royal Decree-Law is accordingly repealed."
Minister for Social Rights defends rental extension ahead of imminent parliamentary repeal
The Editor, based on what Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 said
The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda presented Royal Decree-Law 8/2026 by invoking Article 47 of the Constitution and quantifying the decree's impact on approximately 3 million tenants. He framed the vote as a choice between the public interest and the profit targets of foreign investment funds, citing polling data showing 74% public support for the extension — including two thirds of People's Party and Vox voters — and suggesting that more than half of voters would reconsider their support if their party voted against. The presentation featured three individual tenant cases, with those tenants present in the public gallery, to reinforce the political argument directed at undecided groups, particularly Junts.
The minister pre-empted and rebutted the three most commonly used opposition arguments: that the measure harms small landlords (denied with concentration data), that it reduces supply (denied by citing its deterrent effect on illegal tourist lets), and that the solution is to build more (refuted by arguing that new supply absorbed by large funds would not reduce prices without a permanent public housing stock). Despite the strength of the speech's arguments, the decree was repealed hours later by 177 votes to 166, indicating that neither the electoral argument — the reputational cost of voting against — nor the technical case succeeded in moving Junts. The next decision point is whether the government turns to an ordinary private member's bill or a new emergency decree to restore some form of protection before the summer of 2026.
"You are voting on whether housing is a citizens' right or a speculative asset for financial accumulation."
ERC tables bill in Congress to create bilateral investment consortium with Catalonia
The Editor, based on what Esquerra Republicana de Cataluña (ERC) said
ERC presented the consortium as an intermediate governance instrument between the status quo of dependence on ministerial goodwill and its stated goal of full fiscal sovereignty. The Republican spokesperson cited the collapse of the Cercanías commuter rail network, delays on the Pyrenean axis, the AP-7 and A-2 motorways, the link with the Valencia region, and the management of ports, airports and desalination plants as evidence of decades of underinvestment under both PP and PSOE governments. The consortium envisages an annual investment plan with execution monitoring mechanisms and the creation of a commercial company to cut the administrative lead times that, according to ERC, stall projects in their early phases for years.
ERC's speech was in part a direct attack on Junts, whom it accused of blocking a preliminary reading — a stage that merely opens an amendment period without committing the final text — for reasons of political tactics rather than citizens' interests. Junts offered the counter-argument that the consortium transfers no real power to Catalonia but instead institutionalises Madrid's oversight of Catalan investment. The bill's defeat by 168 votes in favour and 181 against, with no abstentions, confirms that the independence bloc does not function as a legislative unit in the current Congress. The result worsens ERC's position in the Catalan electoral cycle, where it directly competes with Junts for the sovereignist vote.
"Pay up — pay up, no gimmicks and no excuses."
Junts announces vote against rental decree citing five specific legal defects
The Editor, based on what Junts per Catalunya said
Junts acted as the swing vote in the repeal of Royal Decree-Law 8/2026, and its spokesperson structured the intervention as a legal brief rather than an ideological statement, making it harder for the government to portray the rejection as political obstruction. The five defects identified — absence of a tenant solvency requirement, landlord-necessity exemption lacking prior contractual basis, a 2% cap not anchored to the IRAP index, a reverse effect in Catalonia's stressed-market zones, and a conflict with the three-year extension under the Housing Act — all point to drafting failures that the government could have corrected between the first repeal and the reintroduction of the decree. Junts explicitly argued that the government had been aware of these objections and chose to ignore them, turning the rejection into a signal of deliberate political rupture rather than a technically remediable disagreement.
Junts's alternative package includes three measures that entail budgetary cost or broader regulatory reform: a tax deduction on rent for tenants, urgent flexibility in public works contracts for housing (noting that developers are already withdrawing from awarded contracts because of cost increases driven by the international environment), and an amendment to the Civil Code allowing the holder of a mortgage transferred to a fund to redeem it at the transfer price — estimated by one judge at 10% of the original value. None of these proposals was incorporated into the decree. The next pressure point is whether the government negotiates bilaterally with Junts before presenting a new text, or seeks an alternative majority that does without the party's seven MPs.
"On technical grounds alone, this decree cannot be voted for as currently drafted."
Junts rejects ERC investment consortium and demands direct payment of state debt to Catalonia
The Editor, based on what Junts per Catalunya said
Junts's intervention in the investment consortium debate lays bare the strategic rift between the two main Catalan independence parties in Congress: ERC backs incremental negotiation within the state framework as a step towards fiscal sovereignty, while Junts argues that any bilateral body that does not transfer effective power to the Generalitat entrenches dependence and legitimises the state's non-compliance. The Junts MP listed commitments the PSOE has failed to honour — the transfer of Cercanías, the fiscal key, singular financing and personal income tax arrangements — citing them as evidence that the government does not deliver on what it negotiates, regardless of the legal text. She presented the break with the PSOE — finalised, in her account, months before the session — as the correct model for relations with the central government, in contrast to ERC's strategy of maintaining dialogue.
Junts secured the repeal of Royal Decree-Law 8/2026 hours later in the same session, reinforcing its internal argument that the party's seven votes carry real blocking power. The MP noted that with 14 seats — double its current total — Junts could 'change everything', a message aimed at electoral mobilisation in Catalonia rather than at present parliamentary negotiations. The next decision point for Junts is whether it maintains its veto on any new version of the rental decree or opens conditional negotiations tied to the incorporation of its technical proposals.
"Pay up — pay up, no gimmicks and no excuses. Catalonia does not need more gravy trains funded with people's money."