MADRID, Spain – Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Monday that he is dissolving the Cortes Generales and calling elections for 29 November. The defeat of the housing decrees precipitated the early vote, but Sánchez sought to present it as more than a way out of parliamentary deadlock: a choice between his continuity or handing the country to an ultra-right coalition. Sánchez urged Spaniards to decide what force they want for themselves and for Spain, and, in a speech with the flavour of a campaign rally, contrasted the continuity of his project with the ultra wave advancing in other countries. Although he acknowledged errors and unresolved issues, he argued that to do more he needs to renew and broaden people’s support, asking for the vote for the PSOE.
Feijóo Urges Sánchez To Call Elections: “I’m ready”
The call marks a U-turn from Sánchez’s commitment to serve out the full term. The mandate that began after the July 2023 elections will end before completing four years, with the ballot set for 29 November, despite his repeated assurances that he would last until 2027. The prime minister gave the early election a political dimension beyond parliamentary deadlock, saying the moment has come for Spaniards to decide what future they want for themselves and their country.
He thus turned the call into a direct appeal to voters and a plebiscite on the country’s model. After reviewing the achievements he attributes to his government and admitting it has also made mistakes and that problems remain, he asked for a much broader parliamentary majority to do more. The dilemma he drew is clear: join the ultra-right wave or keep Spain as a bastion of openness and social justice. The prime minister presents 29 November as an opportunity to renew his mandate and stop a possible PP-Vox government.
His appeal to halt the far right comes amid left-wing mobilisation over housing, but with polls against him: most published in recent weeks put the PP as the leading force and point to a PP-Vox majority. The latest DYM barometer for 20minutos gives the conservatives 34.7 per cent of the vote and between 144 and 148 seats, the PSOE 26.3 per cent and between 102 and 105 deputies, while Vox would reach 17.3 per cent and between 58 and 61 seats.
Junts Torpedoes Housing Decrees, Leaving Government in the lurch
But the strategy of framing the early election as a plebiscite on the country’s model also allows him in some way to bypass the parliamentary defeat the government suffered last Friday over the housing decrees. In his speech he barely referred to the fall of the housing decrees and did not explain whether the executive will try to recover those measures by another route. He did include access to housing among the pending problems and championed the initiatives approved by his government. In other words, Sánchez turns housing into one of the reasons to ask for more support, but he arrives at the ballot box after Congress brought down the measures with which he intended to respond to that emergency.
