Spain’s Housing Crisis Pushes Sanchez Into a Snap Election

An 87-year-old woman’s eviction from the Madrid home where she had lived for 70 years helped fuel the housing anger now surrounding Spain’s snap election. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called a November 29 general election after parliament rejected his minority government’s housing relief proposals, according to Al Jazeera, reporting with Reuters. The decision turns a battle over housing into a contest over who governs the country.

Sanchez announced the vote in a televised address on Monday, October 5. It brings forward an election that had been due next year. His government lost the parliamentary vote on Friday, another setback for a centre-left leader whose ability to pass measures depends on support beyond his own political ranks. Nationwide housing protests followed that defeat.

Housing anger reaches the ballot box

The government put attendance at Saturday’s housing demonstration in Madrid at more than 70,000 people. Anger had intensified since late last month following the eviction of Marai del Carmen Abascal. An international investment fund had bought her building and raised the rent. Her loss of a home after seven decades became part of the wider public anger over housing described in the report.

The parliamentary rejection left Sanchez seeking a fresh mandate from voters rather than waiting for the scheduled election. He argued that a larger progressive majority would allow his government to overcome entrenched interests and carry out further social changes. The challenge is not simply to stay in office, but to secure enough parliamentary backing to deliver measures that his existing government could not pass.

Sanchez said he needed renewed public backing and a much larger progressive majority in parliament.

He also acknowledged mistakes and admitted that he had not fulfilled some earlier campaign promises. Part of the social majority he hoped to represent was dissatisfied, he said. That admission accompanied his appeal to mobilise supporters: the election call asks voters for more support at a moment when both parliament and street demonstrations have exposed the pressure on his government.

A risky route to a stronger mandate

Opinion polls cited in the report suggest that the most likely result is a coalition led by the conservative People’s Party, known as the PP, with backing from the far-right Vox party. That makes the early election a gamble for Sanchez. Rather than delivering the stronger progressive majority he wants, the vote could hand power to his opponents.

If Vox entered central government, it would be the first time a far-right party had done so since dictator Francisco Franco’s death, the report said. A Sanchez defeat would also remove one of Europe’s remaining left-leaning governments. He has stayed in power through three successive terms spanning eight years by assembling fragile alliances stretching from the far left to right-wing separatists, without winning enough votes to govern alone.

The next test is November 29. Attention will centre on whether Sanchez can turn his appeal for renewed support into a workable parliamentary majority, or whether the conservative-led outcome indicated by polls takes shape. For a government brought to this point by a failed housing package, the immediate hurdle is winning the votes needed to act.