Spain snap election: PM Sanchez calls November election amid growing housing protests

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election after facing mounting pressure from mass protests over the country’s housing crisis.

Sánchez called the early election for November 29 during a televised speech to the nation from the Palace of Moncloa, his official residence in Madrid.

“The time has come for the Spanish people to decide what future they want for themselves and for their country,” Sánchez said.

The announcement comes less than 72 hours after Sánchez’s government failed to secure parliamentary backing for two housing-related royal decree laws aimed at easing mounting public pressure over Spain’s housing crisis.

Sánchez admitted his government has “made mistakes and have not managed to do everything we set out to do.”

He said there were “still many injustices to correct,” but said he needed “to renew and broaden public support to undertake the necessary reforms so that citizens can reduce these levels of inequality.”

For days hundreds of people have camped out in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol to protest the housing crisis gripping the country.

Demonstrations calling for measures to address the housing emergency have also spread to cities across Spain over the past week.