Spain | The Constitutional Court receives a total of eight appeals against the housing law | Economy

This Tuesday, the Constitutional Court admitted for processing the last two unconstitutionality appeals against the housing law, corresponding to the Catalan Generalitat and the Xunta de Galicia. In both cases, the substance of the challenges refers to the alleged invasion of autonomous powers by the State. The preceding appeals were presented by the PP parliamentary group and the Catalan Parliament, followed by those of the Government Councils of Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and Madrid; and finally that of the Basque Executive, whose challenge was admitted for processing last March. The new admissions definitively leave at eight the resources that the Constitutional Court will analyze separately, although first choosing the one that allows it to group the alleged grounds of challenge to formulate what in the scope of the court of guarantees is known as a “judgment of header”, whose doctrine is then extended to the remaining rulings.

In the case of Catalonia, the drafting of the housing law and the subsequent appeals led to a clash between the pro-independence forces, due to the different role they played in Congress, although they later ended up agreeing to appeal the new regulations. ERC, which governs the Generalitat, first supported the aforementioned project in Parliament, and even presented it together with Bildu as an advance of special relevance in terms of social policies. Junts, on the other hand, was against the project from its beginning.

The approved text was the subject of a report by the Council of Statutory Guarantees of Catalonia, which influenced the change of attitude of ERC. The Council of Statutory Guarantees concluded that the housing law contained eight articles and three provisions that invade the powers of the Generalitat, although it had two dissenting votes. Thus, the Government of the Generalitat presented an appeal of unconstitutionality after the Republican parliamentarians had voted in favor of the law in Congress.

In essence, the challenge is based on said opinion. Mónica Sales, spokesperson for Junts, said when the Generalitat’s appeal was presented that the law “has articles that go against the Statute, which grants full powers to the Government in matters of housing.” And she added a “welcome aboard”, addressing ERC, to ironize that she first voted on the law and then appealed it.

One of the most controversial points of the new legislation is the establishment of a cap on rental prices in stressed areas, an aspect discussed from the first moment by the Community of Madrid. The Xunta de Galicia, in turn, explained when presenting the appeal that its decision came after having warned on several occasions about the possibility of going to the Constitutional Court if an agreement was not reached with the Government on aspects that represented an invasion of the autonomous powers.

Territorial tensions

A similar argument was used by the Basque Executive, which alleged when presenting its appeal in February that the challenge came after “exhausting all possibilities for negotiation” and trying to reach with the central Administration “an interpretative agreement so that they would recognize Basque powers in this matter.” ”, in order to guarantee that the state standard does not prevail over the autonomous negotiation.

The repetition of this type of arguments has made a certain dent in the Constitutional Court. Hence, its resolution to admit all the appeals presented is mixed with the criterion that the volume of challenges presented is in part a product of the insurmountable difficulties encountered by the political forces to articulate housing regulations that overcome territorial tensions and ideological differences, a problem for which the court will now have to find a remedy with its sentences.