On a single dramatic day, Pedro Sánchez’s government revives the housing measures parliament voted down and the constitutional court removes the last major legal obstacle to the return of the exiled Catalan separatist leader
Spain Expat Press Editorial Team
The Spanish government has re-approved two emergency housing decrees that parliament rejected just four days ago. On the same day, the country’s constitutional court ruled that an amnesty law also covers embezzlement charges linked to Catalonia’s 2017 independence bid. The ruling brings the exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont closer than ever to returning to Spain.
The twin developments came a day after the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, dissolved parliament and called a snap general election for 29 November.
Decrees back on the table
Speaking after Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Sánchez defended the measures. “The decrees will give people peace of mind,” he said. “This is not an ideological question, it is a question of humanity.” He also unveiled a package of 21 measures to tackle Spain’s housing crisis, including interest-free loans of up to €50,000 for first-time buyers.
The crucial difference this time lies in where the decrees will be voted on. With parliament dissolved, they will not return to the 350-seat Congress of Deputies but go to the Diputación Permanente, a 69-member standing committee. There, the hardline Catalan separatist party Junts, whose seven deputies sank the measures on Friday, has only one vote.
The texts approved on Tuesday have yet to be published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, Spain’s official gazette. Details circulating so far, including the exceptions to a proposed extension of rental contracts, relate to the original decrees of 29 September, which are no longer in force. The government says the new versions contain only “technical adjustments”.
Puigdemont edges closer
In a separate ruling, the constitutional court decided by seven votes to five that the 2024 amnesty law covers the embezzlement charges arising from the 2017 referendum, which Spanish courts had declared illegal. It ordered the supreme court to apply the amnesty. The constitutional court’s president, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, accused the supreme court of an “unpredictable” interpretation that departed from the purpose of the law.
The embezzlement charge was the reason the supreme court judge Pablo Llarena had kept a Spanish arrest warrant in force against Puigdemont, who fled Spain in 2017. He has not yet returned: the supreme court must first apply the new doctrine to his case. But the main legal barrier to his homecoming now appears close to falling.
The constitutional court is independent of the government. However, the amnesty law was the centrepiece of the deal Sánchez struck with Catalan separatists to secure a new term in 2023, and opposition parties have seized on the coincidence of the two rulings.
‘Limitless ambition’
The conservative People’s party (PP) and the far-right Vox denounced the decree manoeuvre as a “cheat”. The PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, accused Sánchez of a “limitless ambition for power”.
Junts, the loser on housing and the winner at the constitutional court, struck a more measured tone. Its parliamentary spokesperson, Míriam Nogueras, objected to the decrees being approved by a body “where the social majority is not represented”, but conceded that the procedure “is legal”. She also ruled out helping the PP and Vox into government after the election: “They will not govern with our votes.”
Allies wary
Sánchez’s junior coalition partner, Sumar, has backed the strategy. Its leader and deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, had urged ministers to re-approve both decrees: “We will win again. This time with more strength.”
The Basque Nationalist party (PNV), however, now holds the decisive vote on the committee. It backed the first decree but voted against the second, which would make rental contracts renew automatically. The party says it will examine the new texts “in depth” before deciding, and the government is reported to be already negotiating with it.
Constitutional doubts
The Spanish constitution does not explicitly prohibit the government from re-approving a decree that parliament has rejected, which is the government’s main argument. But several legal experts have voiced serious concerns. According to the newspaper El Diario Alerta, the former constitutional court judge Manuel Aragón described the manoeuvre as “constitutional fraud”. Manuel Fernández-Fontecha, a former senior legal adviser to the court, noted that the standing committee “safeguards the powers of Congress but does not replace them”. A challenge before the constitutional court itself has not been ruled out.
With housing and Puigdemont’s possible return now dominating the agenda, Spain faces a fierce campaign ahead of the 29 November election.
