Spain's Sanchez Calls Snap Election for November 29 After Housing Defeat in Parliament

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called an early general election for November 29, in a bid to strengthen his mandate after a fragmented parliament rejected his government's key housing decrees last week, Reuters reported.

Sánchez made the announcement on Monday in a televised address from the Moncloa Palace after informing King Felipe VI, according to Spanish media. An extraordinary cabinet meeting was due later on Monday to approve the dissolution of parliament, broadcaster laSexta reported.

"We need to renew people's support"

"We need to renew people's support," Sánchez said in the address. "We need to mobilise 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 prime minister acknowledged having made mistakes and falling short of campaign promises. "I also know that part of that social majority is dissatisfied today," he said, according to Reuters.

Housing defeat triggered the vote

On Friday, the lower house voted down two housing decree-laws, Euronews reported. MPs rejected the first decree by 178 votes to 172 and the second by 184 to 166, according to the BBC. The measures included a suspension of evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030 and tax increases on tourist apartments.

Anger over housing has grown since the televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid last month, Al Jazeera reported. The government said more than 70,000 people took part in a housing protest in the capital on Saturday.

Opposition says "at last"

The conservative People's Party (PP) wrote "AT LAST" in a post on X. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo urged voters to bring his party to power.

"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," Feijóo said in a televised address, Al Jazeera reported.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal warned the result would be unpredictable. "Surveys said the same thing in 2023 and Sanchez managed to form a majority with all his accomplices," he told Antena 3, according to Reuters.

A high-stakes gamble

The snap vote is a risky move for Sánchez, whose Socialist Party trails in nearly every opinion poll. Polls suggest a PP-led government backed by Vox is the most likely outcome, which would bring a far-right party into central government for the first time since the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

Sánchez has never won an outright majority and has relied on fragile alliances to stay in power for eight years. His government has also faced pressure over a migration crisis in Ceuta and corruption cases involving figures close to his party, Euronews reported.