Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called an early general election for Nov. 29, days after parliament rejected his government's emergency housing measures and tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand help for renters.
In a televised address from the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister said "we need to renew the people's support for us" and appealed for a larger progressive majority that would let his government carry out reforms. He admitted mistakes and unmet promises, acknowledging that "part of this social majority is dissatisfied today." He has been in power since 2018 and defended his record by noting that Spain's economy has grown faster than other major European economies over that period.
The immediate trigger was parliament's vote on Friday. Conservative opposition parties joined forces to block ratification of decrees that would have restricted evictions, curbed property speculation, automatically renewed rental contracts and offered renters indefinite leases. The Catalan separatist party Junts, whose support the government has relied on, also opposed the package, calling it hasty and saying it would worsen the crisis. Sánchez leads a minority coalition and has not passed a new budget since 2023, so the country still operates under that year's spending plan.
The protests were sparked by the Sept. 23 eviction of María del Carmen Abascal, an 87-year-old wheelchair user, from the Madrid apartment where she had lived for about seven decades. Activists said an investment firm that acquired the building wanted to raise her rent beyond what she could pay. After television images of her being carried out on a stretcher caused outrage, the owners agreed to let her return. Protests continued anyway. Around 1,000 people have camped in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, with a similar camp in Barcelona, and demonstrators have carried signs reading "Not even one more Maricarmen!" In Valencia, police used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters who broke through a perimeter at a real estate summit. Alicia del Río of a tenants' union leading the protests said the anger "cannot be stopped" and renewed calls for a general strike.
The underlying problem is long-standing. Average rents have nearly doubled in a decade, according to the real estate site Idealista, and the government says 26% of renters spend about 40% of their income on housing, versus 18% across the EU. Public rental housing makes up under 2% of Spain's stock, against an EU average of 8%.
The political calculation is uncertain. Polls show the conservative People's Party ahead of Sánchez's Socialists, though reportedly short of a majority and potentially reliant on the far-right Vox, which could put the far right in national government for the first time since Spain's return to democracy after Franco. Analysts quoted in the sources say that making housing the central campaign issue could mobilise left-leaning voters and spare the Socialists further erosion amid inflation, legislative gridlock and corruption cases involving people close to him. One commentary noted that the government has also passed measures such as a 2023 law allowing rent caps in designated high-pressure areas, but that regional governments run by the People's Party often decline to apply it. The vote will test whether Sánchez can turn public anger into a new mandate or whether it ends his eight years in office.