Spain’s Parliament Rejects Housing Decrees After Nationwide Protests
Two decree-laws fall as Junts joins PP and Vox; Sánchez faces snap-election speculation.
1 min read
File photo: Spain’s Congreso de los Diputados in Madrid. Photo: Selbymay, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Basque nationalists and other smaller allies split or backed only parts of the package; Podemos backed both but criticised the government for “chopping up” the measures, Euronews reported. After the first defeat, demonstrators marched toward Puerta del Sol chanting for a general strike. The tenants’ union said it would shift from the central Madrid camp-in to organising in neighbourhoods against rent rises and evictions.
Snap election talk
Government and Socialist Party figures have floated dissolving parliament if the housing bills failed; Sánchez’s office insists no decision has been taken, Euronews and Spanish media said. Sources told Spanish outlets the cabinet would weigh next steps over the weekend. Sánchez’s government was already under strain from scandals and judicial cases affecting Socialists and allies. Friday’s votes do not resolve Spain’s rent crisis, but they leave the prime minister with fewer legislative tools—and a louder street movement—heading into a politically fragile autumn.
