Spain’s Congress has shot down the government’s omnibus decree from December 23, tossing out a big package of measures in one go. This wasn’t just a minor setback. The vote-178 against, 171 for, no abstentions-means every measure in the decree is now dead in the water.
Inside that package? Some big deals, especially for people struggling with housing. The decree would’ve kept the eviction ban going for vulnerable families behind on rent, tweaked the municipal capital gains tax (the plusvalía municipal), and extended tax breaks for home energy renovations.
But the People’s Party, Junts, and Vox weren’t having it. They argued that lumping all these proposals together made no sense and took particular aim at the eviction ban, which has been around since the pandemic started. With their combined votes, they blocked the whole thing.
So, the government has now suffered its first major defeat in Parliament this year. The fallout is immediate: all those protections and incentives are gone.
One of the biggest losses? The plan to keep the eviction ban in place until the end of 2026, which would have stopped landlords from evicting struggling tenants unless there was somewhere else for them to go. Landlords would’ve also had extra time to claim compensation for lost income. That’s all off the table now.
The eviction ban first showed up in 2020, right at the start of the health crisis, and lawmakers have kept it alive by extending it again and again-until now.
Reactions came in fast. The Platform of People Affected by Occupation called this a “victory for legal certainty” and pushed the government to find real answers to the housing crisis instead of passing the buck to landlords. Meanwhile, the Association of Rental Property Owners (Asval) said repealing the measures brings two changes right away: landlords can now ask courts to resume eviction cases (though social services still get a window to step in), and they can apply for compensation for unpaid rent through February 2026.
During the heated debate, the government tried to soften the blow by announcing €300 million to help landlords hit by unpaid rent, and promised to look for new ways to keep them protected.
The decree also aimed to change how the municipal capital gains tax is calculated. The new rules would have hit people selling homes after only a short time with tax hikes-sometimes up to 40%-but would have eased taxes on long-term owners. Now, with the decree gone, the old 2024 rates stay put.
Tax breaks for home renovations were another casualty. The plan was to let people deduct 20% to 60% of what they spent on making their homes more energy efficient, with the incentives running through 2026 for single homes and 2027 for entire buildings. Without this, companies and homeowners say renovation projects are slowing down, and nobody’s sure what to expect next.
There’s more. The decree blocked utility companies from cutting water and power to vulnerable families, and extended discounts on electricity bills. Those protections have vanished too.
On top of all that, the package included boosts for pensions, the Minimum Vital Income, and other social support. All gone after the vote.
Still, just because Congress killed the decree doesn’t mean these ideas are dead forever. The government could bring some of them back as new, separate bills. That’s what happened last year-some measures that failed at first ended up passing later, just in smaller chunks.
Odds are, the most popular ideas-like raising pensions or keeping the social electricity discount-will make a comeback soon. The eviction ban, though, looks like a much tougher sell. Several parties are firmly against it.
One last twist: on the same day, Congress did pass a different decree. This one keeps public transport subsidies going, adds a new single-fare pass, and makes public transport free in the Canary and Balearic Islands. So, not everything got shut down.
