What to know about Spain’s housing protests as Pedro Sánchez calls snap election

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez has called a snap election for 29 November, seeking to bolster his mandate after a fragmented parliament rejected key housing decrees last week amid public protests.

“We need to renew people's support,” Sanchez said in a televised address. “We need to mobilise and win a much larger progressive majority in parliament, one that will allow us to overcome vested interests, deliver new social advances and continue transforming Spain.”

He acknowledged having made errors and falling short on campaign pledges. “I also know that part of that social majority is dissatisfied today,” he said.

Political stakes and housing crunch

The move represents a gamble, with Sanchez's Socialist Party currently trailing in opinion polls. Nevertheless, he has drawn momentum from proposals addressing the nation's housing crisis. Although well-received, the measures were defeated by right-wing MPs on Friday, leading to planned new protests about housing.

An election defeat would spell the end of one of Europe's last few left-leaning governments at a time when the far-right is making unprecedented gains across the region as a growing swathe of European voters desert the centre ground.

Opinion polls suggest a coalition led by the conservative People's Party (PP) with the support of Vox is the most likely outcome in Spain, ushering a far-right party into central government for the first time since the return of democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

Eviction sparks nationwide anger

It comes after around a thousand protestors camped out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, the capital’s most popular public space, after the elderly María del Carmen Abascal was evicted from her home of seven decades in downtown Madrid on 23 September. The protestors said they wouldn’t leave until the government took real steps to protect tenants.

The housing crunch has been simmering for years in Spain, eating into household budgets and angering voters. While many countries have similar circumstances, Spain’s poorest and its young are being particularly hard hit because they can’t afford to purchase a home and are being squeezed by the country's small stock of rental properties.

Spain ranks near the bottom of countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for government-owned rental properties, which represent less than 2 per cent of its available stock. The European Union average is 8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years. The price per square meter has risen from 8.20 euros (now $9.30) in 2016 to 15.1 euros ($17.15) this year, according to the real estate website Idealista.

Spain’s government said that 26 per cent of Spaniards who rent spend an average of 40 per cent of their income on rent and utilities, compared to the EU average of 18 per cent of renters who do so.

Government response and failed decrees

Tens of thousands of people periodically march in major cities demanding action from lawmakers and blaming real estate speculators as well as tourist apartment platforms like Airbnb for rising rents.

But a new wave of indignation swept Spain when Abascal, who uses a wheelchair, was carried on a stretcher from her apartment after police cordoned off the street. Televised images of the eviction prompted thousands of people to protest in Madrid and other cities across the southern European country.

“I haven’t managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others can learn to fight for what’s theirs,” Abascal said in a video recorded from a hospital bed after the eviction.

The Spanish real estate company which had insisted on evicting her in order to rent the property at a much higher price ended up reaching an agreement for her to return to the apartment, her lawyer said, adding Abascal was “happy.”

Even with a satisfying resolution for “Maricarmen,” as Abascal is now widely known, she remains the embodiment of the struggle against suffocating rental costs. Protesters have carried signs with slogans such as “Not even one more Maricarmen!” and demonstrations have been cropping up in cities across the country.

“The housing crisis will sweep this government away,” left-wing parliament member Gabriel Rufián of the ERC party said when she was evicted, urging Sánchez to act.

The government pushed forward a package of emergency measures to respond to the housing crunch. Lawmakers planned to vote Friday on the measures in Parliament, where the Socialist-led minority coalition needed the backing of several smaller parties to get them over the line.

Spain's government hoped that its newly presented housing measures would appease the protestors and sway public opinion. It split the measures into two decrees, issuing the first on Sept. 30. Parliament had 30 days to ratify it.