‘Andalusia seizes housing belonging to banks to curb evictions’

The Andalusian regional government, a coalition between the Socialist Workers Party and the United Left, is taking control of properties belonging to banks for a period of three years if families living there are "at risk of exclusion" and threatened with eviction.
The decision, which will come into force on April 11, has come at a time when the new mortgage law is under discussion in the national parliament. The legislation imposes fines on banks that own unoccupied housing, which they refuse to rent out.
Notwithstanding the European Court of Justice ruling which condemned the abuse of evictions in Spain in March of this year, "legal opinion as to the constitutional compliance of the [Andalusian government’s decision] is divided,” notes the newspaper, because “it could undermine the right to private property."