Five minutes before the vote, everything seemed to be finally under control to prevent the government from suffering another defeat. La Moncloa had been alerted to ensure that the president and the first vice president, who normally do not attend votes on the first day of the weekly session unless there is a major reason, were present. The proposed law to limit temporary housing rentals would pass by just one vote, but it would pass. “We have half a vote to spare,” joked a Sumar party MP in the courtyard. The announced abstention of Junts, the most vulnerable part of the government’s parliamentary base, was offset by the “critical support” of PNV and Coalición Canaria. And then, three minutes before the votes were to begin at the end of the day, Íñigo Errejón, spokesman for Sumar, received a phone call. The message was a bombshell: Junts announced they would vote no. Amid the enthusiastic applause from the PP and Vox benches, Carles Puigdemont’s party inflicted the government’s 35th parliamentary defeat of the legislature.
Junts’ MPs had arrived at the Congress on Tuesday determined to create another nerve-wracking day. Three hours before the session began, the group’s spokesperson, Miriam Nogueras, gathered the press in the courtyard and expressed objections to the proposed law on temporary rentals: “It does not provide legal certainty, it does not protect landlords and infringes on Catalonia’s competencies, a red line for us.” Sources from Junts announced they would abstain, a position that was publicly confirmed in Barcelona by their general secretary, Jordi Turull, in an interview on TVE at almost the same time. Once again, Junts opened a breach in the theoretical investiture majority and left the initiative supported by the entire left hanging by a thread for consideration. The first thread, that of PNV, quickly sent a reassuring message to its allies confirming a “critical support,” as did Cristina Valido, the only Coalición Canaria MP. José Luis Ábalos, the former socialist minister now in the Mixed Group, whose vote was also essential, had not yet expressed his position. In the late afternoon, Ábalos confirmed that he would not break the majority. Members of the government, with Pedro Sánchez at the head, arrived after eight in the evening. Vice President María Jesús Montero seemed caught off guard as she arrived accompanied by her daughter.
The proposed law had been promoted by the tenants’ union and presented by Sumar with the support of other groups to the left of the PSOE: ERC, EH Bildu, Podemos, and BNG. Its goal was to prevent long-term rental contracts from being disguised as temporary in order to circumvent tenant guarantees provided for in the law. Some of the measures included prohibiting more than two six-month contracts in succession and justifying the reasons for choosing a temporary link. All to prevent landlords from finding loopholes to commit “law fraud,” in the words of a disappointed Errejón after the vote – 178 against and 172 in favor – after seeing more than a week of negotiations with the groups go to waste. During the debate, the Junts MP who spoke, former Girona mayor Marta Madrenas, reiterated Nogueras’ criticisms and showed no sign of a change in the announced position. Junts sources argued at the end of the session that they could not allow the initiative to proceed due to their abstention, although this was already predictable since lunchtime. Turull also stated in a tweet that they had not changed their minds, but that other parties had “changed the scenario”.
The unexpected outcome left the left-wing parties expressing their indignation towards Junts. “Their homeland is their wallet. Shame,” protested Sumar’s housing spokesperson, Alberto Ibáñez. “Once again, Junts acted like Junts,” added Pilar Vallugera from ERC. “First, they said they would abstain, then they changed their vote… They couldn’t care less about the real conditions of the people.” Puigdemont’s party played cat and mouse with the left after leaving the session with a victory. The party managed to pass a proposal to amend the Penal Code to increase penalties for repeat offenders of minor crimes, similar to one already approved in July by the PP. Despite the left’s reservations, Junts secured the favorable votes of the PSOE and even the abstention of ERC, although Gabriel Rufián accused them of having “hints of Orriols” in their speech, referring to the leader of the xenophobic and independence movement Aliança Catalana.
