The Basque Nationalist Party said Tuesday it will support Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's first reissued housing decree, a move that appears to give Spain's 69-member Permanent Deputation the votes to ratify an eviction moratorium and related tenant protections after Friday's parliamentary defeat triggered a snap general election.
Sánchez's Council of Ministers approved two royal decree-laws again on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after the Official State Gazette published the dissolution of Congress and set the ballot for Sunday, November 29. Campaigning will run from November 13 through November 27 under the timetable King Felipe VI signed with the government on Monday.
What the standing commission can still do
With the full Cortes dissolved, validation of emergency legislation falls to the Permanent Deputation, a reduced panel of lawmakers that remains in place during election periods. Government officials have argued that the first decree — covering eviction freezes for vulnerable households, limits on speculative property purchases, tourist-rental rules and expanded affordable supply — can enter force once published and then be confirmed by that smaller body.
PNV leaders told reporters they will back that first text after Madrid incorporated technical changes following last week's rejection in the full Congress, where the People's Party, Vox and Junts combined to block the package. If other groups hold the same positions they took on Friday, the Basque party's votes would complete the majority Sánchez lacked in the 350-seat chamber.
Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez said the reworked measures keep the "essence" of the earlier version while adding what the government described as clarifications on room rentals, short seasonal leases and tax relief for landlords who keep units affordable. Sánchez told a press conference the package reflects polling that shows broad public support for state intervention in a market where rents have climbed faster than wages in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities.
A second decree faces a harder path
The second decree, which would automatically renew rental contracts when leases expire unless specific exceptions apply, is structured differently. Sánchez said it will only take effect if the Permanent Deputation approves it, avoiding a brief legal limbo in which tenants might assume rights that could lapse weeks later if the caretaker body votes no.
Junts, the Catalan pro-independence party whose abstentions helped Sánchez govern since 2023, has signaled it will not rescue the package again. Party leaders said over the weekend that their votes would not be available to sustain decrees they opposed on substance. That leaves the PNV as the pivot for at least the eviction and supply measures, even as Sánchez frames the election as a choice between progressive housing action and conservative opposition to rent caps.
Election politics and the housing fight
Sánchez called the early vote on Monday, saying the housing defeat convinced him he needed a stronger mandate rather than relying on fragile parliamentary arithmetic. Opposition leaders accused him of using the crisis to mask political weakness, while tenant groups that marched in Barcelona and other cities welcomed the attempt to revive protections.
Electoral officials said voter rolls will be frozen under standard rules once the campaign opens, and party registration deadlines for November 29 are already tightening. For renters facing notices this autumn, however, the immediate question is whether the first decree publishes in the state gazette and survives the Permanent Deputation vote expected in coming days — a procedural fight that will continue even as parties shift into full campaign mode.
PNV officials did not commit to the automatic-renewal decree on Tuesday, underscoring that the two texts may follow different paths through the caretaker legislature. Government lawyers said they would publish the approved texts promptly so that protections tied to the first package can be cited in court if landlords challenge stays of eviction.