Junts blocks housing decrees, testing Sánchez's minority government

Spain's parliament rejected two government decrees aimed at easing the housing affordability crisis on Friday, October 2, 2026, after the Catalan separatist party Junts announced it would vote against the measures. The defeat strips Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's minority government of a legislative response to a crisis that has brought protesters to the streets of Madrid and raised the prospect of early elections.

The vote took place as demonstrators marched on parliament demanding stronger renter protections. The mobilisation followed the televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman, identified as Maricarmen, on September 23. Footage of the removal circulated widely and became a flashpoint for housing advocates who argue that existing protections are insufficient.

Junts, whose seven deputies are essential to Sánchez's parliamentary arithmetic, issued a statement Friday morning confirming its opposition. The party's withdrawal of support left the government without the votes needed to ratify the emergency decrees, which had been approved by the Council of Ministers in late August and required congressional approval within 30 days to remain in force.

The rejected package included measures to extend rent controls in designated "stressed" zones, limit annual rent increases to the consumer price index, and strengthen protections against eviction for vulnerable households. The government had framed the decrees as an urgent response to a market where rental prices in major cities have risen more than 50 percent over the past decade while wages have stagnated.

The defeat lays bare the fragility of Sánchez's parliamentary majority. Since taking office in November 2023, the Socialist-led coalition has relied on a shifting constellation of regional and nationalist parties to pass legislation. Junts, led by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont from exile, has extracted concessions on issues ranging from amnesty for separatist leaders to Catalan language recognition in EU institutions. Its refusal to support the housing decrees signals a new limit to that cooperation.

Parliamentary sources indicated that Junts objected to the centralisation of housing competences the decrees implied, arguing that the measures encroached on Catalonia's devolved authority over housing policy. The party has previously demanded that any national framework respect regional legislative autonomy. The government did not amend the text to accommodate that demand before the vote.

The loss leaves a pressing social crisis without a legislative answer. Spain's rental market remains among the most unaffordable in Europe relative to income. In Madrid and Barcelona, median rent consumes more than 40 percent of median household income, according to Bank of Spain data. The eviction that triggered the protests was not an isolated incident: court-ordered removals rose 18 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to the General Council of the Judiciary.

The defeat has sparked speculation that Sánchez could bring forward elections, currently scheduled for 2027. A snap election would shift the political calendar and potentially reshape the housing policy debate, but it would also risk the Socialist Party's position in polls that show the conservative People's Party leading by a narrow margin. Sánchez has not commented publicly on the election question since the vote.

Opposition leaders seized on the defeat. People's Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called it "proof that the government has lost its parliamentary majority and its capacity to govern." Sumar, the coalition's junior partner, blamed Junts for "blocking protection for thousands of families" and urged the government to present new measures immediately.

The government now faces three options: negotiate a revised text with Junts, seek alternative majorities with other parties, or govern by decree in areas where executive action does not require parliamentary ratification. Each path carries political cost. A revised text would require concessions that could alienate Sumar or the Basque nationalist PNV. Alternative majorities do not exist in the current parliament for housing policy. Executive action alone cannot replicate the legal force of the rejected rent-control provisions.

Protest organisers have called for further demonstrations next week. The platform "Vivienda es Derecho" (Housing Is a Right) announced a march for October 9, demanding that the government reintroduce the measures with stronger protections and without territorial concessions. Whether street pressure can alter parliamentary arithmetic remains an open question.

The episode illustrates how a single eviction, amplified by television and social media, can cascade into a parliamentary crisis for a government that governs vote by vote. The housing affordability crisis has become a stress test for Spain's minority coalition, where the whims of a Catalan separatist party now determine whether the state can respond to a national emergency.