When the investiture block fragmented in the vote on the labor reform, in the purple wing of the coalition government, the processing of the housing law was seen as a possible glue that would bring together the usual partners of the Executive. At the moment, that image is far from being produced and the housing law is in danger in the vote this Thursday. The PNV, like PP, Cs, PDECat and Junts have registered amendments so that the text is returned to the Government. The ERC vote is therefore decisive. Sources from the Catalan Republican Party point out that they are “closer to rejecting the initiative than accepting it for processing” given the invasion of powers that it implies and demand the commitment of the PSOE to solve this issue.
The flagship project of United We Can – first negotiated by paul churches and then for Ione Belarra– could decay before starting to walk. The totality amendments presented by PP, Cs, PNV, PDECat and Junts will be voted on jointly and if ERC adheres to this block -to which Vox will presumably be added-, the norm will be rejected and will not be processed. On the contrary, if this first step is saved, the alternative text amendment registered by the Catalan Republicans will be voted on, which, clearly, would not go ahead. Only then would Congress begin work on the Government’s original project.
Conversations ‘in extremis’
ERC sources in Congress point out that the current situation is “complicated” and that, for the moment, they are in the ‘no’ to the housing law. The reason, they argue, is that it supposes an “invasion” of regional powers. In this sense, they consider that the future regulation could harm the Catalan housing law, approved by their own party and Junts in 2020.
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The same voices demand a written commitment from the PSOE in which it is confirmed that during the processing of the law the matter of competences will be resolved. For the moment, Republicans and Socialists are immersed in negotiations to reach a “meeting point,” stress PSOE sources. In ERC they confirm these conversations, although they do not face them with too much optimism.
The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) already warned in its report -approved in the midst of a strong division- that the constitutional distribution of powers in this matter was violated. Specifically, it stressed that the “expropriation of the regional regulation by the state legislator will undoubtedly generate a situation of great legal insecurity as it will certainly be difficult to determine which rule will be applied, the state or the regional, when they do not fully agree between Yes”.