Spain's Sanchez Dealt Crushing Defeat as Parliament Rejects Housing Decrees

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez suffered a stinging parliamentary defeat Friday when lawmakers rejected a pair of emergency decrees meant to ease the country's housing affordability crisis, a setback that has set off open speculation about early elections.

The two measures failed after a five-hour debate in which Sanchez made a final appeal to the 349 lawmakers in the chamber. The Catalan separatist party Junts voted against both decrees, joining the center-right Popular Party and the far-right Vox in opposition.

Outside the parliament building, protesters who had gathered to press for help on rent jeered the result, while people seated in the public gallery shouted that "vulture funds govern the congress."

Sanchez's Last-Gasp Appeal Falls Flat

Sanchez told the chamber the measures were "necessary" and framed them as a check on a market he said had spiraled beyond control. "What is behind these decrees is the desire to instill order and a sense of humanity in a market that if we do not rein it in will destroy our society," he said.

He closed with a warning aimed squarely at wavering lawmakers. "Do the right thing, or history will judge you, and sooner than you think," Sanchez said before the roll-call vote.

It was not enough. Junts, whose support Sanchez has depended on since assembling a government in 2023, followed through on its earlier announcement that it would oppose both decrees. The combination of Junts, the Popular Party and Vox doomed the package.

Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez had appealed directly to the separatists from the lectern, noting that her ministry had "incorporated 90% of your proposals" and urging them to "vote for the decrees or at least abstain."

The Eviction That Ignited Spain

The decrees were drafted in response to a wave of public anger over the televised eviction last week of an 87-year-old woman, Maricarmen Abascal, from her Madrid apartment.

The images sparked protests and a camp-in that has occupied Madrid's most prominent square ever since. The company that carried out the eviction relented this week under mounting public and political pressure and said Abascal may return home. She remains in a hospital after being removed from the apartment on a stretcher.

The first rejected decree would have shielded vulnerable residents from eviction, made real estate speculation harder and offered tax incentives to encourage renting. The second would have made residential leases automatically renewable for tenants.

The stakes are plain in the numbers. Average rents in Spain have nearly doubled over the past decade, and the average price per square meter climbed from 8.20 euros in 2016 to 15.1 euros, or about $17.15, this year.

Snap Election Speculation Swirls

The defeat immediately revived talk in Spanish media that Sanchez could bring elections forward from next year. His office did not respond to questions about a possible snap vote.

Oriol Bartomeus, a political science professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said uncertainty now hangs over Spanish politics because Sanchez has credible reasons both to move quickly and to wait.

"It is clear that the issue of housing is more favorable than corruption," Bartomeus said. "But if he calls elections now, he has to wait 54 days to hold them, and in that time absolutely anything can happen."

The calculation is complicated by the legal cases shadowing Sanchez's Socialist Party and even his family, all of which they deny, and by the pressure of the migration crisis in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta. His minority government has survived only through a patchwork of alliances with regional parties like Junts, whose leader, Carles Puigdemont, has lived in Belgium since fleeing Spain after the failed 2017 push for Catalan independence.

What Comes Next

For now, the path forward is unclear. The government could return with fresh legislation, or Sanchez could pull the trigger on an election.

Protest organizers show no sign of standing down. The renters association Sindicato de Inquilinas called for more demonstrations on Saturday and is pressing for a general strike.

Protesters outside the parliament made clear they hold the right-wing parties responsible for the outcome. "I don't know what might happen, whether elections will be called, but in the streets we will continue fighting and the atmosphere is one of a general strike," said Carla Cremonte, a 34-year-old office worker.

The coming days will test whether Sanchez can regroup his coalition, or whether a housing rebellion becomes the issue that finally ends his government.