In an editorial published on Sunday, ABC contends that Spain's government is aggravating the housing crisis it claims to be fighting. The newspaper, which titled the piece "Contumacia intervencionista", criticises the executive for legislating by decree at a moment when the Cortes has already been dissolved, and for setting aside the independent advice of those who follow the rental market closely.
The paper says it is listing the ingredients of what it calls the "perfect storm" that has hung over housing for years, driven by demand that the government has either not wanted or not managed to meet. It faults the executive for failing to enlarge the housing stock and for opting instead for what it describes as administrative meddling, legal uncertainty and the systematic disparagement of the players in the sector.
As part of that account, the editorial states that official intervention has cut the number of available flats by 44 percent, and it calls the housing sector essential to the survival of middle-class households.
On their way to the Diputación Permanente of the Congress, the most recent housing decrees are described by ABC as the final expression of the stubbornness with which the government has handled a social crisis, applying what the paper calls the old maxim of "the worse, the better".
