Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calls early elections after failure to pass housing reforms

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on Monday for early elections to be held on November 29, after Parliament rejected measures to ease the housing crisis proposed by his government, which lacks a parliamentary majority.

Friday's defeat constitutes the latest political setback for the Socialist Prime Minister, one of the few left-wing European prime ministers still in power.

Sanchez, who has been in office since 2018, said in a speech from Moncloa Palace: “In order to carry out the profound, pending reforms that we need... we must mobilize our energies and obtain a much larger, progressive majority that enables us to satisfy the elites, extract new social gains, and continue to change Spain.”

Tens of thousands of protesters went out in marches on Saturday in Madrid and other Spanish cities, demanding the provision of affordable housing. The opposition parties in the Spanish Parliament dropped the measures proposed by the government, which included automatic renewal of lease contracts and imposing restrictions on the eviction of tenants from the most vulnerable groups. This defeat angered protesters against the country's high housing costs, and also highlighted the difficulties facing the Sanchez-led coalition government in passing legislation.

Spain has been operating for years under the 2023 budget, the latest national spending plan approved by the Sanchez government. These demonstrations came to exacerbate a crisis that has been going on for more than a week, and began after Maricarmen Abascal (87 years old) was forced last month to vacate the apartment in which she had lived for decades in Madrid because she was unable to afford the rent after it had increased five times.

Hundreds of protesters are camping out more than a week ago in the heart of Madrid to press for reforms. Recent opinion polls generally indicate that the conservative Popular Party, the main opposition party, is ahead of the Socialists.

Housing has been a major concern for Spaniards for years; The volume of supply is less than the demand, and rents and house prices are rising similar to what is happening in the rest of the European Union countries. Average rents in Spain have nearly doubled over the past decade, while asking prices for homes have risen by about 90 percent, according to data from the Idealista real estate website.

The Abascal eviction has fueled longstanding anger over skyrocketing housing costs. Housing activists reported that the retired woman was forced to leave her apartment in Madrid, where she lived for more than seven decades, after it was acquired by an investment company that sought to raise the rent by 275 percent.

After angry reactions, the new owners reached an agreement with her that allowed her to return to the apartment for a lower rent. In another context, the draft housing laws presented by the leftist coalition led by Sanchez to Parliament were rejected, after the Catalan separatist “Guents” party, on whose support the government depends, voted against them, considering that they were prepared in a hurry and that they would exacerbate the housing crisis.

Sánchez defended his government's record in his speech, noting that the Spanish economy has grown at a faster pace since he came to power than other major European economies. But after 8 years in power, Sanchez is also facing pressure resulting from corruption scandals involving those close to him, including his wife and prominent figures in the Socialist Party. The Prime Minister also faced widespread criticism over his handling of the crisis in the city of Ceuta (the Spanish enclave in North Africa), where thousands of migrants from Morocco entered the city in late July.

The situation has gradually deteriorated at the European land border with Africa, and many migrants are still sleeping in temporary camps. These events inflamed tensions and led to almost daily protests from local residents demanding that things return to normal.

On Saturday, Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Viejo renewed his call for Sanchez to hold elections, saying that the country “can no longer bear it.” Although opinion polls show the Popular Party's lead, they indicate that the party will not obtain an absolute majority in Parliament, and will need the support of the far-right Fox Party to form the government.