Spain’s Prime Minister calls early election after housing crisis defeat — SkimNews
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- Pedro Sanchez called a snap election for November 29 after parliament rejected housing relief measures on October 2, 2026, telling voters he needed to "renew and broaden the support of the people" for a "much broader, progressive majority in parliament."
- The housing bills — which included automatic renewal of tenancy contracts and restrictions on evicting vulnerable tenants — were voted down not only by opposition parties but by Junts, the Catalan separatist party on whose parliamentary support Sanchez's minority government depends, and which called the measures "hastily drawn up."
- Tens of thousands marched in Madrid and other Spanish cities on October 3 demanding affordable housing, a wave triggered by the September eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a flat she had occupied for seven decades after an investment company tried to raise her rent by 275%.
- Abascal was allowed to return to her flat at a low rent after the backlash, while Idealista data shows average Spanish rents have nearly doubled and asking home prices have risen roughly 90% over the past decade.
- Opposition Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo welcomed the vote, asking: "If eight years have not been enough, why would four more be?" — recent polls place the PP ahead of the Socialists but short of an absolute majority, likely requiring support from far-right Vox to govern.
- Sanchez also faces separate pressure from corruption scandals involving his wife and top Socialist Party figures, plus criticism over his handling of thousands of Moroccan migrants entering the North African territory of Ceuta in late July.
Why it matters: Sanchez is calling an election two years early while polls place the opposition PP ahead but short of an absolute majority — likely forcing a PP-Vox governing arrangement and leaving the housing affordability crisis that triggered the vote still unresolved for Spanish renters.
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