Unless there is an unexpected plot twist, Catalonia's rent control law will end up in the Constitutional Court. The Spanish government has already prepared its appeal, which is expected to be passed by the cabinet on Tuesday. The minister José Luis Ábalos defended that there is no other alternative to the evidence of alleged unconstitutionality of the Catalan law that puts a cap on rents that can be legally charged in towns and cities. However, as a "gesture", he confirmed that his government will not ask the court to suspend the law on an interim basis, while awaiting a permanent decision.
In a press conference after this Monday's PSOE executive meeting, organizational secretary Ábalos said that "it is very difficult not to appeal when the Council of Statutory Guarantees of Catalonia issues a report as negative as the one it has issued." In this regard, he remarked that "if unconstitutionality is so obvious, we cannot ignore it." He added: "To guarantee the right to housing, measures must be in accordance with the law and not outside it." Nevertheless, he also announced that from the Moncloa government palace they will not demand automatic suspension of the law. "It's an important gesture," said Ábalos himself on this decision.
In fact, according to sources close to the talks, the ERC spokesperson in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, contacted both vice president Carmen Calvo and Socialist spokesperson Adriana Lastra on Friday. They agreed that, for the time being, it should not be suspended.
The law in question was passed last September in the Catalan Parliament and provides that, in municipalities with population of over 20,000, rental prices cannot be higher than the level set in the previous contract and cannot exceed the price index calculated by the Catalan housing department's formula. Only newly constructed dwellings are outside the regulation. In the event of non-compliance with the regulations, penalties range from 3,000 to 90,000 euros.
The PSC backs the appeal
This morning, the Catalan Socialists (PSC) endorsed the Sánchez government's possible appeal to the Catalan rent control law. In a press conference, Socialist spokeswoman Alícia Romero asserted that her group had already warned that the law was not viable because, as an autonomous community, Catalonia doesn't not have the power to impose this sort of restriction.
She commented that the Council of Statutory Guarantees - the Catalan body tasked with pre-assessing whether laws meet constitutional requirements - had "already said unanimously that Catalonia did not have the competency to make that law". Thus, Romero called on Catalan parties to stick to "our powers" and said that the foreseeable demise of the Catalan law was the "chronicle of a death foretold."
Last Friday, all four parties that passed the law (ERC, Junts, CUP and Comuns) and several housing action groups made a joint call to the Spanish government to abandon its plan to appeal it. The call is for the constitutionality of the Catalan bill to be assured by passing a similar law at Spanish level, which the Sánchez government has failed to do because the PSOE disagrees with Podemos on the content.