Spain will go to the polls again on 29 November

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced his resignation and that Spain will hold a general election on 29 November. The announcement came during his public address to the nation, broadcast live on television from the Moncloa Palace.

Sánchez acknowledged that the government had “made mistakes” and had not achieved all its stated objectives. Following a weekend of extensive consultations with members of his cabinet, his party’s leaders and partners from other parties, Sánchez decided to dissolve Parliament nine months before the end of the parliamentary term, which he had always intended to see through to the end.

The trigger was the rejection, last Friday in Congress, of the two housing decrees drawn up by the government in response to the social protests that followed the eviction in Madrid of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal. Junts rejected both decrees, allying itself with the PP and Vox, despite the fact that the government had negotiated part of the content with the Catalan separatists. The blockage sparked demonstrations across the country, with thousands of citizens taking to the streets over the weekend to demand solutions to the housing crisis.