Having failed to secure a majority for a reform of the Rent Act in Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is considering calling a snap general election.
Sánchez intends to monitor the situation over the weekend before making his decision, reports El Mundo.
The background to the situation is the large-scale demonstrations protesting against the eviction of 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal from the flat in Madrid where she has lived for 70 years. As a result of the protests, the government has proposed a tenancy reform aimed at better protecting tenants.
The difficulty for Sánchez is that he leads a minority government consisting of his own Socialist Party (PSOE) and the far-left party Sumar, which requires the support of several smaller parties. And it is one of these, the Catalan separatist party Junts, that does not support the reform because, in their view, it does not take sufficient account of the interests of small-scale landlords.
But for the Socialists, a row over housing policy could be the opportunity they need to go on the offensive after the government’s handling of migration policy has cast it in a poor light in recent times.
If Sánchez realises that the left can capitalise on the moment, the chances increase that he will bring forward the election, which must be held by August 2027.
For the current Spanish government, the situation has looked hopeless in the opinion polls for the past year.
Source: Poll of polls. Graphic: Politico.
With the long-established right-wing party, the Partido Popular (PP), leading in the opinion polls, and the right-wing populist Vox as the third-largest party, a change of government has long been on the cards.
Within Sánchez’s own camp, the view is that ‘there could be no better time to call an election. We have a narrative and a just cause’.
‘No one can rule out any possibility. ‘Everything is on the table’, point out government sources, who confirm that another option under consideration is to table a new decree before Congress. Their analysis is that, following the massive influx of migrants into Ceuta – which dominated the news this summer – ‘the public debate has centred on the housing issue, and it may well be that this is here to stay and that it will be the deciding factor in the election”.
“To our left, they are unfortunately not yet organised, but it would be welcome if this were an opportunity for everyone, both them and us,” they add in Sánchez’s circle, where they acknowledge that the public protests, for the first time in several months, “are working in their favour”. “We may have an opportunity to change housing policy in this country by preventing a majority for the PP and Vox,” they add.
The Prime Minister made cryptic remarks in his surprise speech to the plenary session: “Do the right thing, for history will judge you, sooner than you think and with greater force than you can imagine.” Last-minute pressure on Junts and, for some, perhaps, a hidden message.
If Sánchez decides to call a snap general election, a possible date is 29 November, writes El Mundo.
