MADRID, Oct 2: Spanish lawmakers are due to vote on Friday on two government housing decrees drawn up after an outcry over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman, with their passage in doubt.
The parliamentary session began at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) and lawmakers were expected to debate the measures before voting later in the sitting.
But their approval hangs in the balance after Catalan separatist party Junts announced late on Thursday it would vote against the decrees as they stand.
A heavy security presence surrounded parliament in Madrid with police vans and barriers set up, as protesters from a nearby housing protest camp marched to the parliament building.
Right to Housing
Tenants' unions have urged supporters to pressure lawmakers to approve the measures, which were adopted by the left-wing coalition government on Tuesday following protests sparked by the eviction last week of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal.
Abascal was forced to leave the Madrid flat where she had lived for around seven decades after it was acquired by an investment company that sought to increase her rent by 275 percent.
She has become a symbol of Spain's housing crisis and is now due to return to the flat where she lived under a deal reached Monday with its owner but protest camps in the capital and other cities have continued.
The government decrees include the automatic renewal of rental contracts when they expire and measures aimed at restricting the eviction of vulnerable tenants.
They also target so-called vulture funds, investment firms that buy properties at low prices in pursuit of higher returns.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeatedly urged lawmakers to support the measures, calling on them to act with "responsibility" in the fragmented parliament, where his coalition government lacks a majority.
"The time has come for the truth," he wrote on X late on Thursday, arguing parties must choose if "they are with the social majority or with the speculators".
The main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox have also said they will vote against the measures.
The government had negotiated the decrees with Junts. But the Catalan party argues that the proposed measures unfairly lump small landlords who rely on rental income together with profit-driven real-estate companies, and could have "negative and irreversible" effects.
Sanchez's government relies on the support of the party's seven lawmakers to pass legislation.
Housing affordability has been one of Spain's main social concerns for years but protests intensified following Abascal's eviction.
