Symbolic imageSpain re-approves housing decrees and lifts Puigdemont warrant as campaign begins
Spain's cabinet re-approved its housing decrees on Tuesday after parliament rejected them. A Supreme Court judge lifted Carles Puigdemont's arrest warrant.
The cabinet adopted a slightly revised version of the two decrees that parliament rejected on Friday, 2 October, and that triggered the 29 November election. Pedro Sánchez called the 21 measures "not a question of ideology but of humanity". They include a €10 billion programme for zero-interest loans of up to €50,000 for first-time buyers. The stand-in Diputación permanente is to vote in the coming days; with the Socialist speaker's vote, Sánchez does not need Junts there, but resistance from the Basque PNV makes the second decree uncertain.
Violence in Barcelona, strike looms
More than 20,000 people marched in Barcelona on Monday evening against rent rises and speculation; clashes with police led to about a dozen arrests and several injuries. The unions CCOO and UGT announced a 24-hour general strike, the first since 2012, with no date yet.
Puigdemont can return
The Constitutional Court ruled 7 to 5 on Tuesday that the 2024 amnesty also covers embezzlement. Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena then lifted the national warrants against Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in 2017, and two former regional ministers.
Other opinions
The Financial Times argues the decrees do little for the root causes of the housing shortage and says Sánchez increasingly rules by decree.