Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap general election for November 29, sending Spain back to the polls after a fractured parliament rejected key housing measures proposed by his minority government.
Sanchez announced the election Monday, October 5, from the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, saying Spain needs a government with broader parliamentary support to advance its agenda. He said he had informed King Felipe VI and would convene an extraordinary Cabinet meeting to dissolve parliament and formally begin the election process.
The decision comes just days after lawmakers defeated two government decrees intended to address Spain’s deepening housing crisis, an issue that has sparked demonstrations and encampments in Madrid and other cities.
Sanchez said his government needs renewed public backing and a larger parliamentary majority to carry out further reforms.
Housing Defeat Deepens Spain’s Political Deadlock
The immediate backdrop to the snap election is a parliamentary defeat on October 2 over measures designed to strengthen protections for renters.
One decree would have prohibited the eviction of vulnerable tenants until 2030, extended a rent freeze for existing leases for two years and tightened rules governing short-term rentals. A second proposal sought to provide automatic and potentially indefinite extensions of rental contracts.
Both failed after Junts, the Catalan separatist party whose support has often been critical to Sanchez’s government, joined opposition lawmakers in rejecting the measures. Junts argued the proposals risked reducing the supply of rental housing and worsening affordability rather than solving it.
The conservative People’s Party, or PP, also opposed the measures. The defeat underscored the difficulty Sanchez has faced governing without a stable parliamentary majority.
His governing coalition controls 147 seats in Spain’s 350-seat Congress of Deputies, leaving it dependent on several smaller and ideologically diverse parties to pass legislation.
That arrangement enabled Sanchez to remain prime minister after the 2023 election but has increasingly complicated his government’s ability to legislate. Spain has also failed to approve a new national budget since 2023.
Housing Crisis Brings Protesters Into the Streets
Political tensions over housing have intensified amid rapidly rising rents and a shortage of affordable homes. The issue gained particular urgency after the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the Madrid home where she had lived for decades. Her case helped trigger protests, including an encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and demonstrations elsewhere in Spain.
Housing activists continued their demonstrations after parliament rejected the government measures. According to figures cited by Reuters from the Youth Council of Spain, average rents have doubled over the past decade and reached about €1,176 per month, an amount equivalent to almost the entire average monthly salary of a young person.
Housing has consequently emerged as one of the central issues heading into the snap election campaign. Housing pressures affecting younger Europeans have also become increasingly visible across the continent, with Spain recording a steep decline in homeownership among people in their 30s.
Sanchez Seeks Broader Parliamentary Support
Sanchez framed the November vote as an opportunity for voters to decide whether to give his government a stronger mandate. In his address, he acknowledged dissatisfaction among some voters and conceded that his coalition had made mistakes and had not achieved everything it intended.
“To do more, we need to renew and expand the people’s support,” Sanchez said in the official government transcript. He called for a “much broader” progressive majority in parliament.
The Socialist leader has governed Spain since 2018 and has repeatedly relied on coalition agreements and support from smaller regional parties to remain in office.
The main opposition PP has welcomed the decision to hold a snap election. Its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, had repeatedly called on Sanchez to dissolve parliament and allow voters to choose a new government.
Recent opinion surveys have generally shown Sanchez’s Socialist Party trailing the PP, while the right-wing Vox party has also increased its support. Polling at the beginning of a campaign, however, represents only a snapshot of voter sentiment and does not determine the November result.
The election will determine all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and set the parliamentary arithmetic from which Spain’s next government will be formed.
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