Spain Snap Election Set for Nov. 29 Over Housing Crisis

Why the Emergency Housing Decrees Failed in Parliament

Under intense pressure from tenant unions and his own left-wing coalition partner, Sumar, Sánchez rushed two emergency packages, including Royal Decree-Law 26/2026, before the 350-seat Congress of Deputies on Friday, October 2. In Spain, the cabinet can issue royal decree-laws to respond to urgent crises, but the measures expire unless parliament ratifies them within 30 days.

The government's emergency housing plan proposed five major interventions:

• A ban on evicting vulnerable tenants until 2030.

• A prohibition on distressed-debt investment firms, widely referred to in Spain as "vulture funds," from purchasing residential housing until 2028.

• Mandatory two-year extensions on residential rental contracts set to expire before the end of 2028.

• Stricter rules on short-term and single-room leases used by landlords to bypass standard rent caps.

• A value-added tax (VAT) hike to 10 percent on tourist apartments, paired with higher municipal property taxes.

Despite a last-minute appeal by Sánchez from the parliamentary floor, the decrees were voted down. The conservative People's Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party opposed the package, joined by Together for Catalonia (Junts), a center-right Catalan separatist party whose seven lawmakers have repeatedly held the balance of power since the inconclusive 2023 general election.

Conservative lawmakers argued that state controls only shrink the supply of rental homes. Juan Bravo, a senior People's Party legislator, told parliament that housing becomes affordable by building more homes rather than passing decrees. As opposition deputies cheered the bill's defeat inside the chamber, housing activists in the visitors' gallery tossed leaflets onto the floor and thousands marched through Madrid and Barcelona over the weekend.

The Political Math Behind the Spain Snap Election

For Sánchez, who has governed for eight years by stitching together fragile minority coalitions, the Friday defeat proved that his parliamentary majority was exhausted. Rather than endure months of legislative paralysis while trailing in opinion polls, he chose to turn the November 29 Spain snap election into a direct referendum on housing rights and the prospect of a right-wing government.

The electoral math remains daunting for the ruling coalition. Current polling projections cited by CBC News and Reuters suggest Sánchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) and the left-wing Sumar alliance are on track to win roughly 112 seats, well short of the 176 required for a parliamentary majority in the 350-seat chamber. On October 4, parties within the Sumar movement announced they would launch a unified "Broad Front" electoral platform on October 17 to consolidate progressive voters before the November ballot.

Meanwhile, the opposition enters the seven-week campaign convinced that its moment has arrived. People's Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo welcomed the election call on Monday, framing the campaign not around rent controls, but around border migration pressures in Ceuta and judicial investigations involving figures close to the prime minister's administration and family, allegations that Sánchez and his relatives have denied as politically motivated harassment.

"At last, the Spanish people will decide," Feijóo said on Monday. Vox leader Santiago Abascal also praised the decision, though he cautioned right-wing voters against taking opinion polls for granted.

Sánchez has survived seemingly impossible electoral odds before, most notably in July 2023 when he called a surprise snap vote after regional election losses and prevented a predicted conservative landslide. Whether he can repeat that comeback on November 29 will depend on whether thousands of young Spaniards sleeping in tents across Madrid and Barcelona translate street anger into ballots, or whether voter fatigue hands power to Spain's right.