Spain’s Pedro Sanchez announces snap election as housing plan fails

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election after facing mounting pressure from mass protests over the country’s housing crisis.

“The time has come for the Spanish people to decide what future they want for themselves and for their country,” Sánchez said on Monday, after Parliament rejected housing relief measures proposed by his minority government.

Sanchez said the vote would take place on November 29.

“We need to renew people’s support,” he said in a televised address. “We need to mobilize and win a much larger progressive majority in Parliament, one that will allow us to overcome vested interests, deliver new social advances and continue transforming Spain.”

The announcement comes less than 72 hours after Sánchez’s government failed to secure parliamentary backing for two housing-related royal decree laws aimed at easing mounting public pressure over Spain’s housing crisis.

In recent weeks, Spaniards have demanded solutions from the government over housing affordability, holding protests across the country after public outrage grew over the televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid last month.

The government said more than 70,000 people took part in a housing protest in the capital on Saturday.

For years, housing has been a top concern for Spaniards as current levels fall short of demand. According to real estate website Idealista, average rents have almost doubled over the past decade, while asking prices for homes have risen by about 90 percent.

In his announcement, Sanchez acknowledged having made mistakes and falling short of previous campaign promises.

“I also know that part of that social majority is dissatisfied today,” Sanchez said.

But facing the electorate is a risky move for Sanchez. Opinion polls suggest that a coalition led by the conservative People’s Party (PP), with support from the far-right Vox party, is the most likely outcome in the election.

If they win, it will be the first time since the death of dictator Francisco Franco that a far-right party has entered central government.

PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo urged voters to bring his party to power in the election.

“The question I put to voters is whether they want four more years of what we’ve been living through, or whether they want to give change a chance,” he said in a televised address.

If Sanchez loses the election, it will also mark the end of one of Europe’s last left-leaning governments as the far right continues to gain ground across the continent.

Sanchez has stood out worldwide for his strong stance on progressive ideas, from defending the rights of Palestinian people to defending multilateral institutions and cracking down on tech oligarchs.

The prime minister, who has never won enough votes to form a majority government, has brought together a series of fragile and seemingly impossible coalitions, ranging from the far left to the separatist right, to remain in power for three successive terms, lasting eight years.