Spain’s parliament has approved a government package aimed at easing the country’s housing crisis, a day after workers staged the first general strike in 14 years over soaring housing costs.
The measures approved on Thursday (12 November) protect vulnerable people from eviction until the end of 2030, extends some rental contracts which are due to terminate before the end of 2028 and limits some rent increases until the end of 2027.
Landlords who lower rents will receive tax incentives, while those who rent out tourist apartments in areas of high demand will face penalties.
A proposal to automatically extend rental contracts was rejected after a number of parties, including the People’s Party (PP) and Vox, voted against it.
The failure to pass the policy is a setback for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's centre-left PSOE which has placed housing at the centre of its re-election campaign.
“Every generation has its own struggle — for us, that struggle is housing,” Sánchez said at his first rally after calling the vote.
Spanish voters will go to the polls on 29 November. The PSOE are trailing the right-wing PP in most polls, but are unlikely to win a majority and will require the support of the far-right Vox to govern. The PP has vowed to repeal the measures if it takes power.
Millions of workers across Spain took part in the 24-hour general strike on Wednesday (11 November), which disrupted public transport and resulted in many businesses and shops shutting down for the day.
Spanish trade unions, UGT and CCOO, called the walkout over the country’s housing crisis. The issue has rocketed to the top of the national agenda after the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid in September. The pensioner died a few days later.
More than half (53 per cent) of Spaniards believe housing is the top issue facing the country, surveys carried out in October by market research firm YouGov said.
Here's your AnewZ Technology Daily Brief for the 13th of November. This week, a Microsoft outage hit Australian agencies, Google restricted map...
Iraq is exploring the possibility of importing natural gas from Azerbaijan through Türkiye as Baghdad looks for new ways to secure fuel for it...
Spain’s parliament has approved a government package aimed at easing the country’s housing crisis, a day after workers staged the first...
European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a stark warning at this year's COP31 summit, saying the climate crisis iss advancing faster than governments' efforts to contain it.
Iran will not let a single particle of its enriched nuclear material leave the country, and any new U.S. attack would be met with strikes on distant American bases, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei has said.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is stepping down amid reports linking him to a woman suspected by U.S. authorities of spying for China, throwing the future of the $4 trillion chipmaker into uncertainty.
Four million workers across Spain joined a general strike on Wednesday over the country’s deepening housing crisis, unions said, bringing disruption to factories, ports, shops and public transport just weeks before a snap general election.
Here's your AnewZ Technology Daily Brief for the 13th of November. This week, a Microsoft outage hit Australian agencies, Google restricted mapping data in South Korea, a lawsuit targeted advanced AI development, and Nvidia faced a leadership crisis after Jensen Huang's resignation.
Microsoft struggled to restore its services on Friday after a major outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot across the United States and Asia-Pacific region.
President Vladimir Putin agreed on Thursday to let European representatives join the next round of Ukraine peace talks while the United States continues to work towards what could become the largest prisoner exchange of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Azerbaijan and the UK have pledged to strengthen defence, trade and education cooperation after signing a joint declaration elevating relations to a strategic level in Dublin, Ireland on Thursday (12 November).
More than 333,000 people have been forced from their homes in Yemen since the beginning of August as fighting has escalated, including more than 24,000 in the past week alone, the United Nations said on Thursday.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment