Pedro Sánchez is fighting headwinds after repealed rent laws and scandals

When the housing protests broke out ten days ago, Sánchez's first impulse was to hastily enact laws against evictions and extend protection to tenants. But two of his support parties in Congress, Basque PNV and Catalan Junts, refused to play along in that scenario and on Friday the government's proposal for new rent laws was rejected. Socialist Party mayors and regional presidents have since pleaded with their leader not to wait any longer to call an election, as all coalition parties are losing ground in the polls.

In a speech on Monday, Sánchez described how the coalition has increased employment over the past three years "despite the opposition of economic elites". But what has stayed in the memory of most compatriots are completely different things, above all the many scandals surrounding Sánchez's advisers and relatives. Even the newspaper El País, the news medium most friendly to the coalition, on Monday summed up the term as "marginal with legal cases and corruption".

These lawsuits continue during the election campaign, and the right naturally hopes that revelations from there will shift the focus from the housing shortage to issues where the opposition has a greater advantage. On the housing issue, both the right (2011–2018) and Sánchez, since 2018, have completely failed to meet the rising demand. Contracts that favor renters over apartment owners are popular among Sánchez's constituents, but they do not increase housing supply.

The polls now give the right-wing parties, conservative Partido Popular and right-wing populist Vox, a majority in the next congress. This without, like Sánchez, having to rely on Basque and Catalan separatist parties, which constantly demand new concessions. But the victory of the right is far from a given. Pedro Sánchez has come back from severe defeats before, and he is a far more effective stager and speaker than the Partido Popular's Alberto Nuñez Feijoo.

Some of the ongoing lawsuits may affect him personally.

Along with the battle between blocs, the campaign will mean brutal showdowns within blocs. With radical rhetoric and far-reaching promises on the housing issue, Sánchez hopes to attract voters from his own allies in the left bloc: the Sumar, Podemos and BNG parties.

For Pedro Sánchez, the election matters much more than the political career. The Attorney General and the President of the Constitutional Court are appointed by and politically loyal to Sánchez, an advantage he will lose in a change of power. Some of the ongoing lawsuits may affect him personally. This mainly concerns socialist politician Leire Díez's attempts to threaten and blackmail judges and prosecutors who led investigations against Sánchez's relatives, such as in Badajoz, where Díez tried to get criminals to scare the children of a female judge who investigated and later sentenced Pedro Sánchez's brother David.