Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called an early election for November 29 after he failed to quell mounting social protests.
Mr Sanchez’s minority government, already struggling after a series of mishaps including deadly floods and a migration crisis, was recently confronted with nationwide demonstrations over housing costs.
The situation boiled over after an 87-year-old woman with a disability was evicted from her apartment, galvanising the protest movement.
The government responded with an emergency package of housing measures but that failed to generate sufficient votes in parliament.
“It’s time you, the Spanish people, decide which future you want for yourselves and for the country.” Mr Sanchez said in an address on Monday in Madrid. “You must decide what role you wish to play in this era, and what role you want Spain to play.”
The centre-right People’s Party has led recent polls, garnering 33.9 per cent support in a SocioMetrica poll. The PP’s leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, has indicated his party could govern with the radical-right Vox, which had 18 per cent support in the survey. Mr Sanchez’s Socialists polled at 25.7 per cent.
“We are ready,” Mr Feijoo said on Friday after the housing plan was defeated. “We can’t continue down the path we’re on.”
Mr Sanchez came to power in 2018 and, without a stable parliamentary majority, has spent much of his tenure navigating a succession of crises. They included the Covid-19 pandemic, the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deadly floods in the Valencia region and an unprecedented European blackout last year.
Mr Sanchez, 54, has been one of Europe's loudest voices against the Iran war and has accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and violating international humanitarian law.
His latest term, which began in 2023 and had been due to run until July 2027, has been particularly difficult. He has failed to pass a single budget, while corruption investigations involving his party as well as his family have multiplied. The arrival of about 80,000 undocumented migrants in Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa, this summer fuelled a new wave of social discontent.
His housing proposal sought to freeze rents, make rental contracts indefinite, prohibit the eviction of vulnerable people and regulate short-term tourist apartments. Opposition parties, including the Catalan group Junts, which backed Mr Sanchez’s return to office in 2023, argued that greater intervention in the housing market would only worsen the problem.
The People’s Party already governs most of Spain’s biggest cities and regions, often in coalition with Vox. The two parties govern together in four regions, including Andalusia, the country’s most populous.
Both parties have made removing Mr Sanchez from office a central priority. While they differ on migration, Spain’s territorial model and Europe, they have signalled a willingness to work together if they secure enough seats to replace the last social democratic government in a major European Union country.
Mr Sanchez’s lack of parliamentary support contrasts with Spain’s strong economic performance. The country has posted the fastest growth among Europe’s major economies, unemployment is at its lowest since the financial crisis and tourism is booming.
During his speech, Mr Sanchez criticised the far right, warning against handing “over the reins of the country to a far-right coalition that has proposed nothing – whose sole objective is to repeal and curtail the rights and freedoms we have built over the last eight years”.
