Pedro Sánchez calls November 29 snap election after housing defeat
“It is time for Spaniards to decide what future you want,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in a televised address from Madrid’s Moncloa Palace, calling a snap general election for November 29, 2026. The early vote comes just weeks after a migrant invasion in Ceuta and a bruising legislative defeat in Parliament where right-wing opposition parties joined forces to scuttle two emergency housing decrees.
Housing Crisis Sparks Parliamentary Showdown and Public Outrage
The legislative defeat arrived Friday after the government’s minority coalition bills aimed at controlling the housing crisis were bitterly defeated. The proposed emergency measures included automatically extending tenancy contracts, restricting the eviction of vulnerable tenants, and reducing real estate speculation. These legislative efforts followed major nationwide protests prompted by the televised eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid apartment where she had lived since 1956. In response to the defeat, the Socialist Party and far-left Sumar coalition forced the vote by a show of hands, compelling lawmakers to publicly reveal their positions. Ahead of the vote, Sánchez wrote on X that the hour of truth had arrived and lawmakers were obliged to cast votes that would define them generations to come.
People's Party Leads Polls as Feijóo Challenges Sánchez
Current polling places the center-right People’s Party in the lead at 34 percent, while Sánchez’s Socialist Party stands at 26 percent. The People’s Party would likely need to partner with the far-right Vox party, which is projected to score 18 percent. Following the election announcement, People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo declared that the contest is about Spain beating Sánchez, stating that the Spanish people will finally decide. Meanwhile, political science professor Oriol Bartomeus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona noted that Sánchez is likely calling the vote now because housing frames the debate in terms highly favorable to the Socialist position, allowing him to frame the election along classic left-versus-right lines.
Multiple Pressures on Spain’s Leader
Sánchez, 54, has served as prime minister since 2018, leading a coalition minority government alongside left-wing junior partner Sumar since 2023. Beyond the legislative struggles over housing affordability, his tenure has been hemmed in by legal cases involving his Socialist party as well as his wife and brother, who both deny wrongdoing. His administration has also faced intense scrutiny over a humanitarian crisis in Spain's North African territory of Ceuta, where approximately 10,000 migrants remain following summer border crossings by tens of thousands of mostly Moroccans. Despite overseeing one of the fastest-growing economies in the developed world, Sánchez has struggled to pass a budget since 2023 due to growing fragmentation among his fragile coalition partners.
