Pedro Sánchez announces new elections in Spain after government crisis and massive protests

Sánchez has led a minority government for three years, supported by the radical left Podemos and Sumar, as well as Catalan and Basque nationalists. The next regular election would have been held in 2027 – but on Friday Sánchez was ousted by the Catalan Junts and the Basque PNV, which made common cause with the right-wing opposition on the housing issue.

- For three years we have been forced to deal with emergencies and navigate through a very difficult international situation. We have been forced to fight against very powerful elites, who do not stand for elections but want to control our country. And we have had the worst opposition in history, blocking policies that are good for Spain and boycotting it from its autonomous regions, Sánchez said in a televised speech on Monday.

The new election must be held on November 29, which is the earliest possible date.

The announcement comes after a turbulent weekend when 70,000 Spaniards took to the streets to protest the housing shortage in some 50 cities, according to the authorities. The organizers claim that the number was half a million.

The street protests took off after an 87-year-old woman, Maricarmen Abascal, was evicted from her apartment in Madrid. She had lived in it since 1956, but could no longer pay the rent because a housing association bought the property and raised the rent by 275 percent.

The case has become a symbol of a housing market that many Spaniards perceive as dysfunctional. Three years ago, Sánchez pushed through a housing policy package that would, among other things, introduce a rent ceiling and stimulate housing construction. But it has not caught on – the autonomous regions have in many places refused to introduce rent ceilings.

To meet the critics, Pedro Sánchez issued a decree with several measures, including an automatic renewal of leases, rules to make speculation more difficult and a cap on rent increases of 2 percent.

However, the proposal fell mainly on a part of the decree that increases tenants' rights and puts an end to evictions of socially vulnerable individuals until 2030 - something the Catalan nationalist Junt party fears could favor illegal occupations of houses.