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Sánchez named Spain’s caretaker PM after inconclusive vote

Pedro Sánchez was on Tuesday formally named caretaker prime minister of an interim government that will remain in place until Spain resolves the political uncertainty that emerged from Sunday's inconclusive elections.

Published: 25 July 2023 13:43 CEST
Sánchez named Spain's caretaker PM after inconclusive vote
If the political deadlock is not resolved in the coming months, Spain will likely have to hold a repeat election. Photo by Pierre-Philippe MARCOU/AFP

Although Alberto Nunez Feijóo’s right-wing Popular Party (PP) won the vote, it fell short of a governing majority, handing Sánchez’s Socialists a lifeline as they have more options to create alliances with smaller parties.

“I hereby declare the dismissal of Pedro Sánchez as head of government who will remain in office until a new prime minister takes office,” King Felipe VI said in the official State Gazette.

If the political deadlock is not resolved in the coming months, Spain will likely have to hold a repeat election.

Although Feijóo’s PP won 136 of the 350 seats in parliament, it fell far short of the 176 needed to govern, and even with the support of Vox’s 33 mandates, it can only reach 169.

Even so, Feijóo has demanded the right to form a minority government as winner of the vote, and on Monday began talks with various regionalist parties which look certain to fail given Vox’s extreme positions and strong opposition to regional autonomy.

The Basque PNV party, which won five seats, already indicated on Monday that it had no interest in talking with Feijóo.

Although the left-wing bloc won fewer seats, with Sánchez’s Socialists finishing second with 122 seats and its radical-left ally Sumar winning 31, giving them a total of 153, they can seek support from ERC, a left-wing Catalan separatist party and the Basque separatists Bildu.

READ ALSO: Spain’s election gridlock – What happens next?

The biggest challenge for Sánchez would be to secure the abstention of hardline Catalan separatist party JxCat in a parliamentary investiture vote.

Sumar on Monday said it had tasked one of its Catalan representatives to seek talks with JxCat which, with its seven seats, became the unwitting kingmaker of Sunday’s election.

If everything came together, Sánchez could rally 172 lawmakers behind him, which would be enough to get through a second investiture vote where only a simple majority is required — as long as JxCat didn’t to vote against him.

But the two rival blocs are still waiting for the votes from abroad to be counted, which will only begin on Friday and could take several days.

Media reports said those figures could swing the seats in one direction or another in provinces where only a few votes separated the left and the right.

READ MORE: Fugitive Catalan leader could determine who governs in Spain

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PROPERTY

Spain’s plan to limit temporary accommodation rejected

Spain's left-wing government had planned to tighten its grip on temporary accommodation rentals as a potential means of making more long-term rentals available, but the country's right-wing parties on Tuesday rejected the proposal in parliament.

Published: 18 September 2024 11:53 CEST
Spain's plan to limit temporary accommodation rejected

If passed, the new law would have meant that anyone who wanted to temporarily rent a property would have to explain why and provide a valid reason.

For example, students or researchers would have to show the research contract or course booking to show it would only last a few months.

It would have also meant that if more than six months passed or more than two consecutive contracts issued, it will have automatically become a long-term habitual residence instead.

On Tuesday September 17th, the proposal was ultimately rejected in the Spanish Congress, voted against by Spain’s three main right-wing parties – Catalan nationalists Junts, Spain’s main opposition party the PP and far-right Vox.

The aim in part was to try and rectify the controversial Housing Law, which came into effect in 2023.

In most people’s eyes, the legislation has failed as landlords have found several loopholes to get around the restrictions, prices have continued to increase and the stock of rental properties is even more diminished.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

As a result of the fear of heightened regulation for landlords, many have left the traditional market and turned to tourist rentals or temporary accommodation instead, which are far more lucrative. 

This has had the opposite effect, increasing rental prices instead of stabilising or decreasing them.

READ MORE: Why landlords in Spain leave their flats empty rather than rent long-term

Seasonal contracts and room rentals allow landlords to raise prices every six or nine months and they not subject to the price limitations of the housing law.

The idea of this new law was to try and set the maximum duration of a temporary rental contracts at six months in order to avoid this, but it could have potentially also caused problems for many who need this type accommodation such as students, digital nomads, those living here on a short term basis etc. 

During the debate, Sumar’s spokesperson, Íñigo Errejón, defended the law saying that it is a “solvent”, “fair” and “precise” proposal, which will help “correct an abuse” and “close the gap through which “Landlords can use to avoid the LAU (Urban Leasing Law) and rent regulation”.  

Far-left party Podemos blamed the ruling PSOE for having left this “hole” in the housing law, but also agreed that the restrictions on temporary accommodation were needed to try and rectify this.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

Junts (Catalonia’s main pro-independence party) and the PNV, the Basque nationalist party, were firmly against it. They agreed that the problem must be solved and that “accessible decent housing was needed”, but raised the situation of students, interns, residents or workers who need housing for flexible periods.

Junts party member Marta Madrenas warned of the harmful effects that this limitation on temporary rentals can have for university cities such as Girona.

Vox and the PP meanwhile argued that they don’t want to help cover up the mistakes made by the left with regards to the Housing Law.

Vox deputy Ignacio Hoces stated that the increase in seasonal rentals has occurred due to the “failure” of the Housing Law, since this has caused rental prices to “skyrocketed” by 13 percent and the supply to be reduced by 15 percent.

Temporary accommodation, referred to as alquiler temporal or alquiler de temporada in Spanish, is considered to be anything that’s longer than a month but shorter than a year, middle ground between short-term and long-term rentals. It is also referred to as monthly accommodation or seasonal accommodation.

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