Tourism minister Biel Barceló described it as a "Frankenstein". Others said that it was dead at birth. For once, groups usually at loggerheads with each other - the hoteliers federation, environmentalists GOB, the Aptur association - were in agreement. The holiday rentals' legislation, approved on Tuesday, was useless.
While the bill dealt with much more than just the commercialisation of apartments for tourist rental, establishing a regulatory regime for apartments was at the heart of the legislation. Because of objections from Podemos, this proved to be impossible. The outcome was that apartment rentals could neither be authorised nor prohibited, creating a state of legal uncertainty and total confusion.
It rapidly became clear, and the government's legal advice made it clear, that the system of fines in the legislation was rendered almost unworkable by this uncertainty: these are the fines for owners advertising unlicensed accommodation and for websites which carry them.
Podemos were criticised for having sided with the Partido Popular, whose 2012 tourism law expressly prohibited commercialisation. The party's "partners", i.e. PSOE and Més, started to make political capital out of this. Podemos are now backtracking. During a meeting yesterday, Barceló convinced them of the need to revise the legislation in order to remove the uncertainty created. The Podemos parliamentary spokesperson, Laura Camargo, hinted that she doesn't see "any real problem in doing this".
Podemos still want a declaration of "emergency housing" for Palma and Ibiza. It was the non-inclusion of this in the legislation which was the principal reason why Podemos objected. The minister responsible for the upcoming housing law, Marc Pons, was at the meeting yesterday. In principle, the government has agreed to include this emergency provision in the housing law. Podemos appear to accept this as a solution, yet it is understood that the government had promised this prior to Tuesday's vote.
The legislation will come into force by being published on the Official Bulletin, but modification is likely to be swift and may come in the form of a government decree.