Spain's Sánchez Calls Snap Election for Nov 29 After Housing Defeat

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election for November 29, gambling that nationwide fury over the housing crisis can rescue a minority government that parliament left in ruins. The announcement, made in a televised address from his Moncloa residence on Monday, brings the parliamentary term to an end more than six months ahead of schedule.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for November 29 in a televised address from Moncloa on Monday, October 5, 2026.

Sánchez told the nation that "after informing the head of state, I have decided to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers this morning to dissolve Parliament and call a general election." A regular election would not have been due until the middle of next year.

The immediate trigger was a crushing parliamentary defeat last week, when lawmakers voted down two emergency housing decrees the government had presented as its answer to a deepening crisis of rents and evictions. The opposition conservatives of the People's Party (PP), the far-right Vox, and the Catalan separatist party Junts per Catalunya all lined up against the measures — and both Vox and the PP used the moment to demand an early election.

A Minority Government That Ran Out of Road

The defeat exposed a problem that has dogged Sánchez throughout his eight years as prime minister. Since the inconclusive elections of 2023, his coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the left-wing Sumar (Unite) alliance has governed without a parliamentary majority, surviving through fragile agreements with a patchwork of left-wing, regionalist, and separatist parties.

That balancing act finally broke down nearly a year ago, when Junts per Catalunya — the Catalan separatist formation led by Carles Puigdemont whose votes had been crucial to keeping Sánchez in office — switched to the opposition. Since then, the government has struggled to pass almost anything: Spain's last regular budget dates from 2023.

Sánchez presented that parliamentary fragmentation as one of the central reasons for returning to the electorate, arguing that his government had achieved a great deal but continuing its work would require what he called a much broader majority in parliament. The vote will be the country's test of whether voters agree — or whether they hand the keys to the right.

Maricarmen: The Eviction That Lit the Fuse

The crisis that broke the government has a face: María del Carmen Abascal, known across Spain simply as Maricarmen, an 87-year-old resident of Madrid's Retiro neighborhood. She had lived in the same apartment for more than 70 years until her landlord raised the rent from €500 a month (about $560) to €2,650 (nearly $2,970) — a figure she could not afford.

Her eviction last month ignited a wave of anger that has swept Spanish cities for weeks. For more than a week, hundreds of people have camped out in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square to protest, and demonstrations have spread to Valencia, Barcelona, and other cities. According to the Madrid Tenants Union, one of the groups organizing the protests, about 950,000 people took part in demonstrations across the country over the weekend.

Housing has become one of the most consuming political issues in Spain, with rents and property prices climbing sharply in major cities and along the popular coastal areas. The protests have turned a simmering affordability crisis into the defining issue of Spanish politics — and, now, the likely defining issue of the election campaign.

Two Decrees, Three Opponents, One Broken Parliament

The government's answer to the crisis was a legislative package that included a prohibition on evictions until 2030, tax increases for tourist apartments, and restrictions on residential property purchases by investment groups Sánchez described as "vulture funds." The legislation required the passage of two emergency decrees.

It never got close. Junts declined to support the legislation, joining the PP and Vox in opposition. The defeat was total, and the reaction was immediate: the right-wing parties called for an early election, sensing weakness.

In announcing the snap vote, Sánchez framed it as a choice about the country's direction rather than a mere judgment on his government. "Spain must decide whether it wants to join the far-right wave or remain a bastion of social justice," he said, casting the election as a battle between what he called a wave that "rolls back progress wherever it governs" and a Spain that remains, in his words, a bastion of openness, social justice, and environmental responsibility.

Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the People's Party welcomed the announcement, saying Spaniards would finally have the chance to choose "change" over what he characterized as "incompetence" and "corruption." Beyond housing, the government has been dogged by corruption scandals and the arrival of thousands of migrants in Ceuta in July — although Spain's economy grew by 0.7% in the second quarter, outpacing the euro-area average, voters remain anxious about stagnant wages and the cost of living.

Madrid's Puerta del Sol, where hundreds of housing protesters have been camped for days, according to reports.

What This Means

Sánchez's move is a high-risk gamble. According to almost all polls, the conservative People's Party together with the right-wing populist Vox would win a solid majority of the 350 seats in parliament — a result that would end one of Europe's most prominent progressive governments and install a conservative government with far-right support. The PP already governs alongside Vox in four of Spain's autonomous regions.

But the prime minister is betting that housing anger can move votes. Social Rights and Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy of Sumar has already signaled how the campaign will be fought, indicating that PSOE and Sumar intend to mobilize voters by tapping into public fury over rising rents — a sentiment that intensified after the eviction of Maricarmen and the rejection of the tenant-protection decrees.

Spain has seen this movie before: Sánchez has repeatedly used snap elections and high-stakes gambles to wrong-foot opponents, most famously surviving the 2023 election that pollsters had written him off in. The question is whether the country's housing crisis can produce the kind of mobilization that upends the polls once again — or whether this time the arithmetic finally catches up with him.

The Congress of Deputies in Madrid, where lawmakers rejected two emergency housing decrees last week, triggering the snap election.

What Happens Next

With the Cortes Generales dissolved, Spain is now in official campaign mode for the November 29 vote. The government is reportedly exploring reintroducing parts of the housing package through the Diputación Permanente, the standing parliamentary committee that operates during dissolution, where PSOE and Sumar control 31 of the 69 votes and would need four additional votes to validate new decrees — a move that would keep housing at the center of the political debate through the campaign.

Polls will set the tone in the coming weeks, and the weekend's protest numbers suggest the streets will keep talking too. For now, one of Europe's longest-serving progressive leaders has staked his future — and his country's — on a single proposition: that a nation angry about housing will vote for the man who tried to fix it, rather than the ones who blocked him.