Spain’s Sánchez calls snap general election for Nov. 29

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez brought forward the general election after Congress rejected two key housing decrees.

The Turkiye Times Editorial DeskOctober 05, 2026, 10:15 AMUpdated: October 05, 2026, 12:17 PM

Spain’s Sánchez calls snap general election for Nov. 29

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in an institutional statement at the Moncloa Palace that the general election will be brought forward to Nov. 29. The government had canceled his schedule for the statement, at which no questions were taken.

The Moncloa Palace, seat of Spain’s prime minister (archive)

The decision came after the Congress of Deputies on Friday rejected two key housing decree-laws with votes against from the People’s Party (PP), Vox and Junts, creating a deadlock that threatened to end the legislature.

The chamber of Spain’s Congress of Deputies (archive)

“The worst opposition in history”

A protest for “decent housing” in Madrid (archive, 2025)

Justifying the early election by the right and far right’s blocking of the housing decrees, Sánchez said: “We have had the worst opposition in the history of Spain, an opposition without a sense of state.” He also said: “We have had to fight very powerful economic elites.” Spain’s housing crisis has sparked protests across the country in recent weeks, including a protest camp in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol.

“The time has come for you to decide what future you want”

Sánchez informed King Felipe VI of his decision before announcing it, with an extraordinary Cabinet meeting expected the same day to approve the call. “The time has come for Spaniards to decide what future you want for yourselves and for your country,” he said.

Acknowledging “dissatisfaction” among much of society, Sánchez said: “I also know that we ourselves have made mistakes and have not managed to do everything we set out to do,” citing remaining problems in inequality, public services and access to housing. He said a much broader progressive majority was needed “to bend the elites,” and that voters must choose between joining “that far-right wave that regresses wherever it governs” or keeping Spain a beacon of openness, social justice and environmental responsibility.

Saying his government had refused to sacrifice the welfare state “on the altar of 5%,” a reference to NATO’s defense spending target, Sánchez said it had strived to build a better world “supporting Ukraine, the European Union and the United Nations in their darkest moments, denouncing genocidal regimes when others remained silent, fighting tyrants, techno-oligarchs and speculators who want to destroy the future of our sons and daughters to fill their pockets.”

Spain’s Sánchez calls snap general election for Nov. 29

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez brought forward the general election after Congress rejected two key housing decrees.