Rent war in Spain: Spain's Prime Minister announces new elections

dpa | Three days after his decrees to combat the housing shortage in Spain failed in parliament, Spain's left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has fled to the front and announced an early election. His government has already achieved a lot, but there is still a lot to do, he said in a nationally televised address. But this requires a “much broader majority in parliament”. “Spain must decide whether it wants to join the far-right wave or continue to remain a bastion of social justice,” the socialist added.

His minority government made up of the socialist PSOE and the left-wing alternative alliance Sumar no longer has a parliamentary majority since Carles Puigdemont's conservative separatist Catalan party Junts switched to the opposition camp almost a year ago. Since then, Sánchez has hardly received any initiatives from parliament. The last regular budget is due to a lack of majorities in 2023. The election would be normal next summer.

The decision to call for a new election is very risky for Sánchez. According to almost all surveys, the conservative People's Party PP and the right-wing populist Vox would win a solid majority of around 200 of the 350 seats in parliament. There is no firewall in Spain like there is in Germany for the AfD. The PP already governs in four autonomous regions with Vox. Sánchez may have decided to go to the polls despite this unfavorable panorama because his party would then at least go into opposition stronger, speculated Spanish media such as the state TV station RTVE.

Sánchez, who has been prime minister since 2018, and his left-wing alternative coalition partner Sumar hope to mobilize their electorate with the outrage of many citizens over rising rents and a lack of living space. The new election will be a “referendum on housing policy,” Social Minister Pablo Bustinduy (Sumar) told RTVE before Sánchez’s announcement. Voters would see who was working for the people. A rent campaign would also distract some attention from government corruption cases and the handling of the migration crisis in Ceuta, which polls show many Spaniards consider to be very poor.

Before the decisive vote on the two rent decrees on Friday, Junts announced that he would vote against them. Junts and its seven MPs had put Sánchez in the saddle after the early election in July 2023. Almost a year ago, however, the party stopped supporting the Sánchez government and has since voted against the government along with the PP and Vox.

The fact that a separatist party like Junts votes together with Vox, a party that wants to abolish all autonomy rights, is one of the contradictions of Spanish politics. Junts justified the break with the government by delaying the amnesty for Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium since Catalonia's illegal secession process in 2017 because there is an arrest warrant against him.

However, this could be repealed following a fundamental decision by the Constitutional Court on the 2024 amnesty law for Catalan separatists, expected on Tuesday. A triumphant return of Puigdemont to Catalonia in the middle of the election campaign could provide ammunition to the conservative and right-wing populist opposition, wrote the newspaper El País. Sánchez has humiliated Spain with the amnesty and is endangering the existence of the state, is the criticism from PP and Vox.

On Tuesday, after the sensational eviction of an 87-year-old's apartment and massive protests, the government decided on an extensive package of measures to combat the housing shortage. Among other things, the plan included an extension of protection against evictions, stricter regulation of rental agreements and a ban on the purchase of apartments by “vulture funds” until 2028. There should also be tax breaks for tenants and landlords. In addition, a second decree provided for a two-year extension of existing rental agreements, which expire at the end of 2028.

The outrage over the senior citizen's case was huge: In Madrid and other cities, tens of thousands took to the streets again at the weekend under the motto “Ni una Maricarmen más” (“Not another Maricarmen”). In the capital, a protest camp with dozens of tents was set up in front of the headquarters of the conservative regional government in the Puerta del Sol square.

The crisis in Spain's housing market has many reasons. The population has increased by three million inhabitants since 2015, an increase of seven percent, according to figures from the national statistics office Ine. In addition, the number of tourists is increasing sharply; the number of overnight stays in holiday apartments has doubled since 2018, reported the newspaper El País.

In holiday regions such as the Balearic Islands with Mallorca, Alicante, Málaga or the Canary Islands, many foreign buyers are competing with locals and driving up property prices. At the same time, too few new apartments are being built. Spain's central bank expects the housing deficit to rise to one million units by 2028 if nothing changes.