Madrid, Oct 5 (EFE).- Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Monday the dissolution of parliament and called an early general election on Nov. 29.
Sánchez made this decision after the parliamentary defeat of two decrees on housing presented to Congress by his government on Friday, and the mass protests sparked by the forcible eviction in Madrid of an 87-year-old woman from the apartment where she lived.
In a press conference at the Moncloa Palace, Sánchez defended his government’s work during the term and called on Spaniards to decide whether they wanted Spain to join the «far-right wave» that regresses and curtails rights or if they wished the country to remain «a bulwark of openness and social justice and environmental responsibility.»
Sánchez defended the «courageous measures» of his government to strengthen the welfare state, although he acknowledged «mistakes.»
He said that the government has not been able to fulfill everything it had proposed, so it decided to call elections, to equip itself with a broader progressive majority to «bend the elites», achieve new social advances and «continue transforming» Spain.
On Friday, the country’s Congress rejected two decrees on housing rental, a sector that has suffered high prices for several years.
The conservative opposition and the far-right, along with the Catalan pro-independence party Junts, voted against the decrees. The latter were key to the final result, rejecting the measures proposed by the government to alleviate the high cost of rent.
The parliamentary debate and subsequent vote on the measures took place in an atmosphere of growing social protest with large demonstrations and encampments in cities, the main one in Madrid, to demand the right to decent and affordable housing, and to prevent the eviction of tenants in situations of socio-economic precariousness.
Sánchez had reiterated until now that the elections would be in 2027, when the legislature would end despite political difficulties.
The government, formed by a coalition of socialists and the left-wing Sumar, lacks a parliamentary majority and has found it increasingly difficult to pass laws due to a lack of parliamentary support, especially from Junts.
Added to this are investigations into corruption that affect the Socialist Workers’ Party and the court cases involving Sánchez’s close relatives. EFE
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