A wave of housing protests swept across dozens of Spanish cities on Saturday as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez weighed calling a snap election.
The largest demonstration took place in Madrid, where four columns of protesters filled the capital’s main boulevards before converging on Cibeles Square. The Spanish Tenants Union, which organized the protests, said 500,000 people took to the streets, while the government’s delegation in Madrid estimated 70,000 protesters participated.
Spanish Tenants Union spokesperson Valeria Racu said the turnout reflected public exasperation with political leaders who have failed to tackle a housing crisis in which average rents have risen nearly 90% over the past decade.
“The people on the streets once again hold the power,” she said while addressing the demonstration, insisting that their movement would “no longer tolerate inaction.”
The protests were triggered after an investment firm evicted 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the apartment where she had lived since 1956. Sánchez’s government sought to contain the discontent on Tuesday by unveiling two long-delayed bills aimed at curbing speculative practices, extending eviction protections for vulnerable tenants and automatically renewing existing contracts. But conservative lawmakers in parliament rejected both bills on Friday.
Amid the defeat, senior government figures indicated Sánchez — already under pressure over the ongoing migrant crisis in Ceuta and corruption cases involving members of his family and close political allies — was considering calling a snap election in a bid to capitalize on anger over housing.
Saturday’s protests underscored the risks of that strategy. While demonstrators slammed the conservative opposition for voting down the bills, they also accused Sánchez of failing to tackle the housing crisis since taking office in 2018.
“Eight days of people power have achieved more than eight years of progressive government,” Racu said, adding that protesters would continue pressuring politicians “regardless of who governs this country.”
Calling for a general strike to force the adoption of urgent housing measures, Racu said “the feelings of disaffection, desperation, disillusionment and sadness have been replaced by a new energy on the streets.”
As the demonstrations took place, Sánchez remained out of sight, weighing his options. Emiliano García-Page, the Socialist president of Castilla-La Mancha, and the party’s leaders in Extremadura, the Basque Country and Castilla y León on Saturday urged Sánchez to call an early election, saying voters needed to be heard.
Meanwhile, the prospect of an imminent election is prompting Spain’s fractured left to scramble to regroup. With Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz declining to run for reelection, Health Minister Mónica García and Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun are seen as frontrunners to succeed her in the leadership of the Sumar party.
But Podemos leader Irene Montero is also positioning herself to lead a broader left-wing alliance. So, too, is longtime housing activist and former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who has signaled a willingness to return to frontline politics at the head of a progressive coalition.
The center-right People’s Party leads in electoral polls with 34% support and is open to forming a government with the far-right Vox party, which is polling at 18%. Sánchez’s Socialists are backed by 26% of voters, and would need the fragmented left to unite behind a viable electoral alliance capable of winning enough seats in parliament to form a fresh coalition.
Spain’s housing protests have begun to spill beyond the country’s borders, with similar demonstrations held in Lisbon, Dublin, Potsdam and The Hague. The mobilizations reflect a bloc-wide crisis marked by the lack of affordable homes and governments under pressure to increase housing supply.
