Spain will head back to the polls on November 29, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in an online address, closing a tense political chapter with a sudden and dramatic turn.
The Socialist leader spoke just days after his left-wing government was defeated in parliament last Friday. Two decrees, meant to answer massive nationwide protests against soaring rents and forced evictions, collapsed when right wing and conservative lawmakers voted them down.
That double defeat has thrown Sánchez’s government into a deep crisis. For almost a year, it has barely been able to push any initiative through parliament, ever since the Catalan separatist party Junts, with its seven deputies, withdrew its support.
The political winds are no kinder in the polls. Sánchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE) now trails the conservative opposition, and defeat at the ballot box could end one of the last left leaning governments in Europe. Abroad, Sánchez earned a reputation for bold stands, including his support for recognizing a Palestinian state. At home, however, a string of scandals has worn down his standing.
According to surveys, the most likely outcome is a coalition between the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the far right populist Vox party. Should that happen, it would be the first time since the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship that a far-right party takes a seat in Spain’s government.
Yet Sánchez is known as a shrewd tactician, a politician who has survived several political crises. He has never won an absolute majority, but over the past eight years he built alliances stretching from the far left to regional separatists and secured three terms in office. Lately, though, constant quarrels among his partners have left lawmaking paralyzed. The government has not passed a budget since 2023, even as Spain’s economy performs strongly compared with its international peers.
