Nocturnal 
Spain is heading for a snap general election on 29 November after weeks of nationwide anger over the country’s housing crisis boiled over into violent clashes between protesters and riot police.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the early vote just days after his government’s emergency housing measures were rejected in parliament on Friday. The election was originally not due until summer 2027.
The unrest was triggered by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home in Madrid after her landlord hiked her rent from €500 to €2,650 a month. The figure was later reduced to €1,650, but that is still roughly €300 more than her monthly pension.
Her case became a rallying point for a wider movement furious at soaring rents and the squeeze on housing supply from short-term tourist lets such as Airbnb.
Violence flares as tens of thousands march
About 70,000 people took part in Saturday’s demonstration in Madrid alone, according to the Spanish government, with protests held across roughly 50 cities. Most were peaceful, but scenes in Valencia turned ugly.
Footage showed demonstrators hurling fences at riot police, who responded with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets. Around 30 protesters briefly broke into the City of Arts and Sciences, a landmark cultural complex, before officers removed them.
In Madrid, police said far-right activists — some performing Nazi salutes — tried to force their way towards demonstrators who had been camped in Puerta del Sol for about a week. Three members of the far-right group were arrested and police fired rubber bullets to control the situation.
Protests planned for Barcelona and nearby Hospitalet de Llobregat were called off due to heavy rain.
Nando de Anguulo, 26, who joined the Madrid march, told reporters: “It’s a shame. It only proves that it is us, the people, who have to adapt to the political parties, and not the politicians to what the people want, and this can’t go on like that.”
Valeria Racu, a spokesperson for the Tenants Union, said a general strike would be called following talks with labour unions.
Why it matters
The rejected legislation would have banned evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, extended a rent freeze on existing leases by two years, and tightened rules on short-term rentals. It failed after the Catalan separatist party Junts, a sometime ally of Sánchez’s left-wing coalition, sided with the opposition, arguing the plans would worsen the housing shortage.
Sánchez’s government is now expected to push through housing measures by other means, with reports suggesting a decree could follow soon. His position has also been complicated in recent months by corruption investigations touching former members of his government, as well as his wife and brother.
This will be Sánchez’s sixth election in 11 years. Most opinion polls point to the conservative People’s Party emerging as the largest party, though it would likely need support from the far-right Vox to form a government.
Opposition leaders welcomed the news. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said Spain would “at last” get to say “what it thinks”, while Vox leader Santiago Abascal said he was “glad” about the announcement. Sánchez’s own cabinet and regional allies have expressed confidence he can “pull off a comeback”.
For now, Spain faces seven weeks of campaigning shaped by anger over housing and the wider cost of living — with the Tenants Union’s threatened general strike adding further pressure before voters go to the polls.
