Podemos stands with rents and monitors the pact of the Judicial Power with the PP

The Catalan elections have given an unexpected turn to Spanish politics.

The all-out war between the PSOE and the PP in recent months has now given way to intense negotiations to agree on the Judiciary, RTVE, the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman.

And the battle has shifted within the Government.

Unidos Podemos, supported by ERC and Bildu, yesterday marked a clear red line: it will not accept a housing law that does not include limits on rent increases.

The group of Pablo Iglesias, who launched a notice to the PSOE, also monitors the pact with the PP in the Judiciary so as not to be left out.

Two political appointments of the highest level in Congress and the Senate this Tuesday gave clear signs of the change of cycle in Spanish politics.

First, the images of King Felipe VI with Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Casado in the act for the 40th anniversary of the failure of the coup d'état of 23-F, who was granted special treatment as head of the opposition and invited to the subsequent lunch with the head of state.

And then, the control session in the Senate, in which the president was especially gentle with the PP spokesman, Javier Maroto.

“Neither I nor this Government are your adversaries.

We are not happy that the PP is doing badly either in Catalonia or in Spain, ”Sánchez told the PP spokesman, with whom he usually has very rough encounters and has had very hard crossings throughout the pandemic.

The relationship between the Government and the PP "is at another time," summarized the vice president, Carmen Calvo.

While Sánchez and Maroto spoke in the Senate, the negotiations between the Government and the PP, led by Félix Bolaños, secretary general of the Presidency, by the Socialists, and Teodoro García Egea, Casado's right hand, by the popular ones, advanced at a good pace According to sources from both sectors, with constant meetings and "very constructive" phone calls, according to these sources.

And while the PSOE and the PP approach for the first time in the entire legislature, after a very tough confrontation of months, especially after the decision of the popular to vote against two extensions of the state of alarm at the worst moment of the pandemic , the PSOE and United We can increase their internal tension every day although all the sources consulted insist that no one sees a near break because it would not make sense at this time.

In United We can view with suspicion the agreement of the PSOE with the PP for the renewal of the Judiciary - they always bet on doing it without the popular, with the legal reform that Sánchez decided to park after criticism from the European Commission - but they remain convinced of that their coalition partner will not betray them and will allow at least two members of the future council to be close to the group led by Iglesias.

The vice president himself made it clear on Tuesday that he does not conceive of the PSOE leaving them out, something that would be interpreted almost as a rupture of the coalition.

“Some have the dream that it is possible to return to the bipartisan model for the election of the CGPJ.

That is not going to happen, "he said, addressing the PP, which ensures that United We can stay out of the Judiciary.

United We can hardly have information on the course of the negotiations, but trusts that the PSOE will find a formula to avoid the veto of the PP.

The simplest is to look for profiles of progressive magistrates or jurists who can be chosen by both the PSOE and United We can so that the PP can accept them.

But the group of Iglesias and the PSOE insist on sending the message to the PP that it must avoid vetoes.

The most sensitive issue now, at least until the negotiation of the Judiciary and RTVE is resolved - something that seems imminent - is that of housing policy.

There United We Can, and with them other allies of the majority such as ERC or Bildu, did launch a very clear message this Tuesday.

The regulation of rents to avoid abusive increases must be done because otherwise it will be a political red line that Unidos Podemos cannot accept.

The problem for the socialists is that, with their 120 deputies, 56 of the absolute majority, they only have two ways to carry out the big decisions: with the majority of the investiture, this is with Podemos and ERC, or with the PP.

And it is one thing to agree with the popular to renew the Judiciary, which requires three-fifths of Congress and is the usual thing, and another to do it to remove transcendental issues from the progressive political agenda such as housing.

That is why the PSOE is now determined to return to the negotiation with United We Can and try to convince them to accept a softer version of the approach to regulate rents, which is what was agreed between Iglesias and Sánchez just before presenting the Budgets.

This Tuesday there was a new meeting between David Lucas, Secretary General of Housing, and Ione Belarra, Secretary of State in the vice-presidency of Iglesias and negotiator of United We Can.

And the appointments will follow in the next few days, which indicates that the negotiation is not broken.

But the agreement seems difficult.

Both groups do not even now agree on the meaning of the pact that Sánchez and Iglesias signed.

The agreement, which was clearly titled "statement on the regulation of rental prices" and bears the seal of the PSOE and United We Can, expressly stated: "In these areas of stressed market, determined based on the reference index systems , mechanisms will be established to contain or eventually lower prices, both for new contracts and existing contracts.

In any case and in relation to the information obtained by the rental price index systems, unjustified increases in new leases will be contained, taking as a reference the price of the previous lease contract and limiting the increases allowed to the situations that arise. contained in the housing law ”.

The Socialists are now betting on tax incentives and United We Can, with the support of several majority groups such as ERC, Bildu or More Country, insists that it is essential to regulate this market, as agreed.

United We can believe that the PSOE has backed down due to pressure from the real estate sector and blames not so much the Minister of Development, José Luis Ábalos, as the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño.

Iglesias made it very clear that this is a red line for United We Can, a group that partly comes from the world of the fight against evictions in the middle of the financial crisis that was a germ of 15-M.

"I think it is not good to stress the coalition government and it becomes stressed when the agreements are breached," said the vice president in a harsh tone.

He also recalled that this matter of regulating the rent was openly agreed between the president and him.

In the Senate, Sánchez tried to reduce the evident internal tension of the Government.

"As president, I am satisfied with the operation of the coalition government during this long year of the legislature," he said.

"More things unite us than separate us," he said.

The issue is especially sensitive in Catalonia, where the mayor of Barcelona and leader of the commons, Ada Colau, has always championed this issue, and the deputy of this group, Gerardo Pisarello, was very tough: “If the Government is not worth to improve the pensions, raising wages or regulating rents, what good is a progressive coalition government?