The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Monday (the 5th) that he is advancing the general elections in Spain to November 29. He made the decision after Parliament defeated two housing decrees last Friday, in recognition that he does not have a majority in Congress, not even to approve emergency measures.
Sánchez, who has held the office since 2018, used a televised address to announce his decision, which was widely anticipated, according to Britain’s The Guardian.
“More than three years ago, polls decided to bet again on a progressive coalition government. We had to deal with unprecedented emergencies, navigate a very difficult international situation; we had to work with a very stern Congress,” Sánchez said.
Read more: Dozens of thousands of people protest across Spain against housing crisis
He also stated that his government had to fight against “very powerful elites who do not run in elections, but want to control our country,” and “with the worst opposition in history, which blocks policies that were good for the country and boycotts them from the autonomous regions,” he complained.
The newspaper El País highlights today that the trigger for the new election was the defeat in Congress of the two decrees drafted by the Government in response to the social mobilization that followed the eviction in Madrid of an 87-year-old woman, Maricarmen Abascal.
The rejection was led by the conservative People’s Party (PP), allied with the far-right Vox and the Catalan right-wing pro-independence party Junts, which had previously negotiated the content of the decrees with the government.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday (the 3rd), intensifying their demands for measures to tackle the growing housing crisis, after the government’s measures were rejected by the opposition.
The PP was pleased with the announcement of the early election. “Finally, the Spanish people will decide,” said the party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “These are not elections like the previous ones. It is about Spain beating Sánchez.” Vox leader Santiago Abascal also welcomed the decision. “We will finally be voting, and Spain will finally be able to choose what kind of country it wants to be,” he said. “That is the only good news Sánchez can bring us lately.”
In an editorial, El País commented today that there is a danger that no one, progressive or conservative, should overlook: the possibility that, for the first time since the death of dictator Franco and the consolidation of democracy, a far-right formation governs in Spain.
“Today that possibility is real. Vox is the partner that the PP seems to privilege in case of victory without an absolute majority, but it is not a party like the others. The xenophobic rhetoric of its leaders, its proximity to global racist movements and parts of its program that oppose the Constitution place it in more radical positions than leaders like Giorgia Meloni or Marine Le Pen,” the editorial says. The elections will be an occasion to analyze all programs, including those whose implementation would have a destructive effect on a diverse and pluralist society.
