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Rent reform is not the most exciting campaign one can cough up before a hot and tiring summer. Nevertheless it is one of those topics that have been neglected by elected politicians because of the sensitivity it arouses with voters when one talks of reforming the present rent laws.
Politicians have seen draconian changes to the law as a threat to their electoral base. And it remains a far more relevant subject than all the debates and talking shops about the shelved European Constitution.
To be fair, rental contracts after 1995 are not governed by the same archaic laws of the post-war period.
For years, political parties have ignored the pleas of landlords who have had to see the income from their properties trickle to a ridiculous figure ignoring years of inflation and monetary changes.
Added to this, the inheritance of rented out properties to members of the family has created an unfair situation for many landlords. Championing the cause, one encounters an unexpected lobby.
The Green Party has launched a campaign that should lead them to collect 30,000 signatures. Dr Harry Vassallo has stated that he is confident that the Greens will collect them by the end of July.
After that it will be up to the electoral commissioner to decide when a referendum to abrogate the rent laws will be held.
If the referendum does take place it is unsure whether there will be a big enough turnout or if the electorate will support the Greens in the first place.
Dr Harry Vassallo has argued that the reform of the rent laws will lead to an increase in the number of apartments or homes for renting. He adds that this will lead to a state where the overheated property prices will cool down although there is little proof that this will take place.
His emotive campaigning has been derided by some observers. They accuse him of appealing to the traditional old guard of the Nationalist party.
Indeed it is strange that a relatively radical party has taken up the gauntlet for the landlords.
Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina has promised that she will take the issue to the cabinet and has every intention of concluding a White Paper for public consumption. But this all sounds very much like a belated reaction to the Vassallo campaign.
Though there is little doubt that Minister Cristina favours some kind of reform in the rental market law regime it is unclear how far the government wishes to get.
The Opposition is unusually quiet about the whole subject.
Lacking in the Vassallo campaign is a careful proposal of what will happen to the underprivileged and elderly who live in the many of these rented houses. A suggestion that the government should make a provision for the shortfall in rents is hardly the right solution.
The rent campaign is also a first attempt to make use of the mechanism provided by the referendum law.
It is extending democracy to a higher and new level. The referendum process cannot be penalised and it would be a shame if the opportunity to gauge public opinion through a voting process is not granted the importance it merits.
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