Spain’s Sánchez calls snap election for 29 November over housing

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election for 29 November amid an ongoing housing crisis.

The election will take place on Sunday, 29 November, the earliest possible date under procedural rules.

In a hard-hitting speech, Sánchez framed the contest as a choice between “regression” under a “far-right coalition” and “continuing to move forward” under his progressive administration.

Sánchez said that in an environment of high political tensions, global instability, the climate crisis, and uncertainty created by the rise of artificial intelligence, the election would centre on who should govern Spain during this turbulent period.

Right-wing parties in parliament had blocked the minority government’s emergency measures on housing amid widespread protests.

The government’s efforts to address the housing crisis had been set out in two royal decrees.

These decrees contained a series of measures aimed at improving access to housing, ranging from an eviction ban until 2030 to the regulation of temporary rentals and room-by-room leases.

However, the decrees were rejected in the Congress on Friday by the conservative People’s Party (PP), the right-wing Vox, and the right-wing Catalan pro-independence party Junts.

The PP, which leads in the polls but may require the support of Vox to form a government, said it rejected the government’s plans because it believes the best way to resolve the crisis is construction, not regulation.

The rejection of the decrees triggered furious reactions from the crowd gathered outside the Congress building.

Long-simmering anger over high rental costs and the precarious nature of many tenancy agreements erupted late last month following the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal.

Abascal, 87, was evicted from the home in Madrid where she had lived for 70 years. She said she could under no circumstances afford the 230% rent increase demanded by the investment fund that acquired her flat.

Her plight prompted tens of thousands of people to take to the streets in protest, and a massive tent encampment reminiscent of the 2011 indignados movement was erected in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square.

Throughout the weekend, major demonstrations were held across the country, with protesters stepping up their demands for urgent action on the housing crisis.

Authorities stated that 70,000 people attended Saturday’s protest in Madrid, while organizers put the figure at 500,000.

Although opinion polls show the PP running comfortably ahead of Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and indicate rising support for Vox, the prime minister may be hoping that the focus on the housing issue, together with the right’s rejection of the government’s plans to tackle the crisis, will mobilize left-wing voters.

The housing issue has also served to divert attention from the government’s widely criticized handling of the ongoing crisis in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta.

That crisis escalated after approximately 70,000 people crossed into the enclave from neighbouring Morocco within a 48-hour period.