Sánchez calls a 29 November election after Congress rejects his housing bills

Pedro Sánchez called a general election for 29 November, more than eight months before the summer 2027 date on the statute book, after Congress rejected the housing package his minority government had tied to weeks of street protests.

He said the vote was the way to widen his support. In a televised address on Monday he told Spaniards: "To do more, we need to renew and broaden the support of the people." His stated aim was "to secure a much broader, progressive majority in parliament."

The bills failed on Friday. They would have suspended evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, extended by two years any rental lease due to expire before 2028, raised tax on apartments used for tourist lets, restricted purchases of homes by investment firms the government calls vulture funds, and made renewal of rental contracts automatic. The People's Party, Vox and Junts voted them down. Junts, the Catalan party whose votes the government has needed, said the texts were drawn up in a hurry and would make the shortage worse.

The protests that pushed the package onto the floor began after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from a Madrid flat. Her rent had been raised from €500 to €2,650. It was later cut to €1,650, still €300 above her monthly pension. The new corporate owners of the building later agreed she could return at a low rent. By then tents were already up in Puerta del Sol. Organisers have kept the camp there since 27 September. Tens of thousands marched in Madrid and other cities on Saturday.

Sánchez has been prime minister since 2018. He leads a Socialist-led coalition that does not have a majority of its own. Housing has become the argument he wants the election to be about. In the same address he warned of an "extreme-right wave" in other countries and said Spain should stay a global example of "peace, feminism and prosperity."

The opposition treated the call as an attempt to change the subject. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the People's Party, said: "At last, the majority will speak again. At last, Spaniards will decide." Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida called the decision political survival and said everyone knew it was not about housing for Sánchez. Santiago Abascal of Vox said he was glad the election had been called and that 29 November looked uncertain. Pepa Millán framed the choice as "Sánchez or Spain."

On the government side, labour minister Yolanda Díaz said "We are going to win again." Sumar said it was ready and that there were more of them. Health minister Mónica García said Spaniards would prevail over what she called the resentment of international hate. Félix Bolaños said the prime minister would pull off a comeback and leave the People's Party and Vox without a government. Catalan president Salvador Illa said a government born to move forward could not stop, and that Catalonia would stand with Sánchez. Unai Sordo of the CCOO union said mobilisation on wages and housing would continue in the months ahead.

The government is still expected to approve the housing measures by decree on Tuesday. Once it does, Sánchez has 30 days to get them ratified in parliament. That clock now runs into a campaign. If the decree fails ratification, the measures fall, and the election becomes the only route he has left for a parliament that will pass them.

Most published polls before the call had the conservatives as the largest party. Eurasia Group on Monday put a 70 percent probability on a centre-right majority, citing the opposition lead, Sánchez's approval ratings and a split left. That is a forecast, not a count. The last Spanish general election produced a parliament in which no bloc could govern without smaller parties, and Junts has already shown it will vote against a housing text it did not write.

Sánchez's position is also weighed down by corruption investigations involving former members of his government, and inquiries that have reached his wife and his brother. None of those cases has produced a conviction that removes him from office. They are, however, part of the record Feijóo and Abascal will use between now and 29 November.

The practical calendar is short. Candidate lists, coalition talks on the left, and a decision by Junts on whether to campaign against the housing decrees or against the prime minister, all have to be settled inside seven weeks. The camp in Puerta del Sol does not dissolve because an election has been called. Oscar López Águeda put the government's line in one sentence on Monday: against the indignity of the penthouses, the dignity of the streets.

What the 29 November vote will not settle on its own is the rent figure that started the protests. A pension that sits €300 under a revised rent of €1,650 is a household arithmetic problem. Parliament can suspend an eviction. It cannot, in one statute, create the flats Madrid does not have.