Spain’s Sánchez calls early elections, setting up showdown with the right

Spanish voters will head to the polls Nov. 29 after Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced early elections. It’s going to be a bitter contest over Spain’s future. (CN) — Embattled Socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, one of Europe’s last progressive leaders, triggered early elections on Monday, hoping to stave off his right-wing challengers by riding a wave of anger over the eviction of an 87-year-old Madrid woman.Sánchez made the unexpected move after lawmakers on Friday shot down his minority government’s attempt to fix Spain’s housing crisis by placing a freeze on evictions and rent increases.The early elections are set for Nov. 29, about eight months before they were scheduled to take place.“We must mobilize and secure a much broader progressive majority in Parliament — one that allows us to overcome the elites … and continue transforming Spain,” the prime minister said in televised remarks.His decision comes amid mass protests in Madrid and other Spanish cities over the eviction late last month of Maricarmen Abascal from an apartment she’d lived in since 1956. Images of her removal on a stretcher after police broke into her apartment raced around the globe, drawing condemnation.On Saturday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Madrid after Parliament rejected the housing fixes proposed by Sánchez. There is widespread anger over exorbitant rents, the mushrooming of short-term rentals, a rise in living costs and the all-too-common practice in Spain of evicting people from their homes.By calling snap elections, Sánchez hopes to shift the focus away from a series of corruption scandals engulfing his Socialist party and energize left-wing voters by focusing on bread-and-butter issues.“Pedro Sánchez has taken a gamble by going early,” said Andrew Dowling, an expert on Spanish politics at Cardiff University. “This is an opportunity to attempt to revive the brand of the left and the center-left around the cost of living, around housing, around areas where traditionally the left have a better message.”It promises to be a highly charged and even ugly campaign pitting Sánchez’s progressive vision against conservative rivals who’ve spent years castigating him as a national disgrace for his leniency toward the Catalan independence movement, advocacy for liberal social policies and confrontations with U.S. President Donald Trump over NATO military spending, Israel and the Iran war.But Sánchez’s prospects of retaining power are very slim with the center-right Popular Party enjoying a big lead in polls. It is expected to form a coalition government with the far-right and ultranationalist Vox party. These two right-wing parties have joined forces at the regional level but not done so at the national level.Until recently, the Popular Party was unwilling to share power with Vox, citing its extremist views. But that calculus has changed due to the steady rise in Vox’s popularity.At the last parliamentary elections in 2023, the Popular Party won the most votes, but it refused to govern with Vox.That opened a path for Sánchez to cobble together a minority government with smaller far-left forces and rely on the votes of separatist Basque and Catalan parties to pass legislation. But it was a tricky formula that hobbled Sánchez’s agenda.Dowling said the alliance between the Popular Party and Vox has been one of the biggest changes in Spanish politics since 2023.Back then, many in the Popular Party and large swaths of voters viewed Vox as too extreme and unfit for mainstream politics.“That fear of Vox has now receded,” Dowling said.As elsewhere in Europe and around the world, the far right has become more acceptable in Spain too, he said.“Vox have also been much more careful in the past year, 18 months,” he added. “They’re much more cautious around their language, around their messaging, around their communication strategies.”Sánchez’s Socialists have been badly bruised by a series of corruption scandals that have reached into the prime minister’s closest circles. Among those hit by corruption charges have been long-time aides, his wife and brother, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Zapatero, the former Socialist prime minister.Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the Popular Party, called the election a choice between “between corruption and decency.”These scandals and criticism of his government’s handling of a major crisis involving a mass incursion of migrants at Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta have badly weakened Sánchez.“It’s been one body blow after another, a pretty catastrophic summer,” Dowling said.Although Sánchez’s chances of winning the election are small, he might be able to make it much closer than the polls suggest, Dowling said.“We mustn’t underestimate Sánchez,” he said. “He’s an incredibly resilient politician.”Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads