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Spain’s
PM Pedro Sánchez calls snap election after housing law fails to pass
Election
called after rightwing parties voted down emergency legislation aimed at
tackling housing crisis
Sam Jones and Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
Mon 5 Oct
2026 09.22 CEST
Spain’s
socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has announced a snap general election
three days after rightwing
parties torpedoed the emergency legislation his minority government had put
forward in response to growing
public anger over the country’s housing crisis.
Sánchez,
who has been in office since 2018, used a televised address to communicate his
decision, which had been widely expected.
Announcing
on Monday morning that an early general election would be held on 29 November,
the prime minister defended his government’s social and humanitarian record in
office and admitted it had made mistakes, but insisted it was time to let the
Spanish people have their say.
“It’s up
to you now,” he said. “A glance at the horizon shows us that the world is in a
very complex era of transformation and transition. It’s a time of great
tension, of climate emergency, and of social and technological changes –
including highly disruptive advances in artificial intelligence. It is,
therefore, a time of great dangers, but also – if we know how to seize the
moment – of great opportunities. You, the Spanish people, must decide what role
you wish to play in this era, and what role you want Spain to play as well.”
Sánchez’s
gamble is being seen as a pragmatic move from a seasoned political risk-taker.
His minority coalition government with the small, leftwing Sumar alliance, has
faced a tough time in parliament since the prime minister secured
his return to office by striking a controversial deal with Catalan
pro-indepedence parties in the aftermath of the inconclusive general
election in July 2023.
Unable to
pass a budget for the past three years, and with his party and inner circle
beset by corruption allegations and his government facing enduring pressure
over its handling of the mass crossing into Spain’s North African enclave of
Ceuta over the summer, he appears to have decided a snap election is his best
chance of survival.
On Monday
morning, Sánchez repeated his familiar insistence that the choice was between
his progressive government and a Spanish right that would curtail freedoms and
turn back the clock on hard-won advances.
“You, the
men and women of Spain, must decide whether you want to join the far-right wave
that drives regression wherever it governs, or to ensure that Spain remains a
bastion of openness, social justice, and environmental responsibility. You must
decide whether you want our country to move backwards or continue moving
forwards, and whether you prefer a government that works for the interests of
the majority of society.”
The next
general election had been due before the end of next summer.
Demonstrators
gathering in Madrid city centre during a housing rights demonstration on
Saturday. Photograph: Enrique Romanos Tardío/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
The
government’s efforts to address the housing crisis were set out in two decrees
that contained a range of measures from a ban on evictions until 2030 to the
regulation of temporary lettings and lettings by room.
But the
decrees were voted down in congress on Friday by the conservative People’s
party (PP), the far-right Vox party, and the rightwing Catalan pro-independence
party Junts. The PP, which is leading the polls but which may need to rely on
Vox’s support to form a government, said it believed construction, and not
regulation, was the best way to tackle the crisis.
The
rejection of the decrees met with an angry response from the crowds who had
gathered outside congress, eliciting boos and cries of “shame” and “Your
profits; our misery”.
The PP
welcomed news of the snap election. “At last, the Spanish people will decide,”
said the party’s leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “These isn’t an election like
previous ones. This is about Spain beating Sánchez.”
Vox’s
leader, Santiago Abascal, also hailed the decision. “At last we’ll be voting
and at last Spain will be able to choose what kind of country it wants to be,”
he said. “That’s the only good news Sánchez can bring us these days.”
2:50
How an
87-year-old Spanish woman became the face of the fight for affordable housing –
explainer
Long-brewing
fury over the high cost of renting and the precarious nature of many tenancies
exploded late last month following the
eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman who was removed from
the home in Madrid where she had lived for 70 years. Abascal said she could not
possibly afford the 230% rent hike demanded by the investment fund that bought
her apartment.
Her
plight prompted tens of thousands of people to take to the streets to protest,
and saw a
huge tent camp reminiscent of the 2011 indignados movement spring up in Madrid’s
central Puerta del Sol square.
Over the
weekend, large
demonstrations were held across the country as protesters stepped up their
demands for urgent action on the housing crisis. Authorities said 70,000 people
had taken part in a protest in Madrid on Saturday, while organisers put the
figure at 500,000.
Although
polls consistently place the PP well ahead of Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist
Workers’ party – and show that support for Vox is growing – the prime minister
will be hoping that the focus on housing, and the right’s rejection of his
government’s plans to address the crisis, will mobilise leftwing voters.
Thousands
of people marched through central Madrid on 23 September after the eviction of
Maricarmen Abascal. Photograph: David Canales/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
The
housing issue has served to deflect attention from the government’s
much-criticised handling of the continuing
crisis in Ceuta, which was sparked when around 70,000
people crossed into the territory from neighbouring Morocco in the space of
48 hours.
Members
of Sánchez’s administration, his party and his inner circle have also been
battling a series of corruption allegations over the past two years.
In July
this year, the prime minister’s brother, David
Sánchez, was banned from holding public office for nine years after being
found guilty of administrative misconduct relating to his hiring by a
socialist-led council in the south-western region of Extremadura.
Meanwhile
Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gomez, is due to face trial after a
judge charged her with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in
business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year
investigation.
David
Sánchez and Begoña Gómez have both denied any wrongdoing, and the prime
minister has previously accused his political and media enemies of launching a
“harassment and bullying operation” against his family.
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