PP member Maria José Gómez, from the town council of Rafal (Alicante) brought home the trauma faced by jobless mortgage-holders when she met the same fate – repossession due to defaulting on the loan – showing that politicians, even those on the same party as president Mariano Rajoy, are not immune to the devastating effects of the recession.

But María José was not prepared to go down without a fight, and has managed to get her bank to agree to a seven-year tenancy term costing 375 euros a month with an option to buy at the end, rather than a figure of between 800 and 900 euros a month that she had been struggling to pay.