Sánchez calls Spain snap election for November 29

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election for November 29, bringing the vote forward from its scheduled 2027 date after parliament rejected two government housing decrees and demonstrations over housing costs spread across the country. Sánchez announced the election in a televised address on October 5, following the October 2 defeat of the measures in the Congress of Deputies. The decrees included restrictions on evicting vulnerable tenants and automatic renewals of tenancy contracts. The government had been seeking parliamentary backing for the proposals amid growing public pressure over affordability and housing supply. Thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday, calling for affordable housing and stronger tenant protections. Spain’s government put attendance at the Madrid protest above 70,000; the figure has not been independently verified in the available accounts. Protests followed widespread attention to the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her Madrid home last month.