'The Economist' sees the early elections as a "desperate bet" by Sánchez with "populist policies"

The British newspaper The Economist considers that the early elections called by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, for November 29 are a "desperate bet" in which "it is being gambled" with "populist policies" and in which the European left could lose "its last great reference."

In an article, the British newspaper recognizes that "Pedro Sánchez's talent for risky bets has allowed him to survive" for eight years as President of the Government, even without a majority in Parliament.

Of course, he specifies that now the polls have been placing the PP and Vox with the capacity to gain an absolute majority after the elections, which is why he sees a "desperate bet" on early elections, taking advantage of the mobilizations in the streets after the eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman who died after 15 days in a Madrid hospital a few hours after signing an agreement with the fund that owned her house to be able to return to it.

"Sánchez, the last great standard-bearer of the left in the European Union, has presented the elections in populist terms, as a dispute between affordable housing and the privileges of right-wing elites," adds The Economist.

In his opinion, "it will not be easy", because although he will be able to close the gap with the addition of PP and Vox, the advantage of these formations together is enormous, according to demographic forecasts. But it does explain that the head of the Spanish Executive has been able to change the story with the Maricarmen case, previously very focused on the assault on the Ceuta border by tens of thousands of migrants and the judicial proceedings opened against the PSOE entourage and Sánchez's own wife.

The British newspaper's analysis recalls that Sánchez brought what are known as 'Maricarmen decrees' to Congress and that both were overthrown, which he used to advance the elections. "This approach to housing, defended by the left around the world, from Berlin to New York, protects tenants who already have a home, but causes a reduction in the supply of rental properties," he warns.

The decree was rejected in Parliament on October 2, when Junts, a Catalan nationalist party, joined other right-wing parties in voting against it. Sánchez had lost the fragile majority that he had managed to gather between the left and the regional nationalists.

Of course, The Economist also focuses on the PP and its candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who remembers that in 2023 he was left at the doors of the Moncloa after the pact between the PSOE and Junts in exchange for the amnesty law for those involved in the 2017 independence process.