Tenants' union urges strike Racu explains its strategy

Oct 2

Speaking live from Sol, Tenants' Union spokeswoman Valeria Racu says the decree defeat is unsurprising and accuses the right of serving property speculation, the left of failing to advance rights and the far right of scapegoating vulnerable groups. Those are her political judgments. She calls the decrees minimum measures and says anger is becoming hope through organizing, claiming eight days of popular power have achieved more than eight years of progressive government. She renews the drive toward a general strike, without announcing its date or a completed call. Asked whether Sol will disperse, she says its own assembly decides and the camp currently continues. It must set new objectives after the decrees' defeat. She announces prospective weekend demonstrations in more than 54 cities and describes teachers, educators, forest firefighters, health workers and housing campaigners joining a broader coalition. She says the movement will outlast the last tent. The entire interview retains her answers and the distinction between ongoing occupation, organizing and future action.

On October 2, 2026, Spain's Congress of Deputies rejected Royal Decree-Law 26/2026 of September 29, the main package of urgent housing measures, by 178 votes against to 172 in favour, with no abstentions among 350 votes cast. President Francina Armengol announced that it was repealed after a public roll-call vote. This is the narrow defeat reported by ARD, whose brief identifies eviction protection in specified cases and tighter short-term-rental rules without supplying an identifier or tally. In the plenary debate, Isabel Rodríguez defended the package as a negotiated balance of tenant protection, support for small landlords and affordable-housing measures and offered urgent processing as a bill after ratification. PSOE, Sumar, ERC, EH Bildu, BNG, Podemos and Compromís backed it; PNV and Coalición Canaria expressed reservations but supported this first decree. PP, Vox, Junts and UPN opposed it, arguing that the government's approach failed on supply or harmed legal certainty and small owners. Those policy predictions and accusations remain the speakers' positions. The separate vote on decree 27/2026 is a different occurrence. Later RTVE and Tagesschau reports recap the same first-package defeat. RTVE’s legal account explains lost eviction, rent-cap, tax, short-term-rental and existing-contract-extension protections and retains uncertainty over judges’ treatment of extensions requested during brief validity. Mercedes’s complete personal follow-up describes a threatened existing lease and her pledge to stay, without a court outcome. Other RTVE political, camp and regional reactions refer to both defeats together and remain shared accounts of two distinct votes; predictions about elections and mobilization are not completed outcomes. RTVE's October 3 complete political report in show 295 retrospectively describes both defeats together and includes Redondo's criticism, Illa's disappointment, Junts's contrary policy assessment and Turull's electoral-interest allegation, with the other parties' housing/electoral responses. Retain these as a shared response to two separately identified votes, not a new combined vote or a called election.