It took only two weeks for an 87-year-old old lady to shake up Spanish power. On September 23, Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from the Madrid apartment she had occupied for seventy-one years. After the purchase of his building by an investment fund, his rent had increased fivefold. Evacuated on a stretcher, she unwillingly becomes the face of the housing crisis. The radical left takes over the matter. Its activists pitch their tents on Puerta del Solin the heart of Madrid. On October 7, Maricarmen died in hospital, without having seen his home again. In the meantime, his tragedy has set Spain ablaze and offered Pedro Sanchez an unexpected exit door.
On September 29, the government urgently presented two decree-laws on housing: freezing of rents, extension of leases by two years and creation of a lease of indefinite duration, accompanied by compensation for the tenant in the event of termination. For the right, it’s the last straw. On October 2, the conservatives of the Partido Popular (PP), the nationalists of Vox and the Catalan center right rejected the texts in Parliament. One more snub for a government running out of steam. The next day, massive demonstrations shook the country. Housing has become the first concern of the Spaniards. Since the socialists came to power in 2018, rents have soared. In big cities, finding accommodation is now an obstacle course.
For Sanchez, this uprising is a game-changer. Unable to pass a new budget for three years, surrounded by the corruption scandals that are plaguing his entourage, the Prime Minister could not envisage dissolving the Cortes without risking precipitating his fall. The campaign would have been about business, the invasion of Ceuta and the attrition of power. So many areas favorable to the right.
But the housing crisis is changing this scenario. Sanchez sees the possibility of regaining the initiative and imposing his campaign themes: social issues rather than corruption, purchasing power rather than immigration. At the risk of being accused of exploiting a social drama. On October 5, he decided: the Spaniards would return to the polls on November 29. In his speech, the socialist summons them to choose “between joining the far-right wave which is causing regression in all the places in which it governs, or deciding that Spain continues to be a bulwark of openness, social justice and environmental responsibility”.
It remains to be seen whether this talent will be enough to reverse the trend
The strategy is clear. Raise the specter of the far right, from Trump to European nationalists, to unite his camp and poach on the lands of the radical left. A formidable ruffian and a fine tactician, Sanchez is not the man to let himself be buried alive. Unlike Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, the leader of the right, he knows how to capture popular emotion. It remains to be seen whether this talent will be enough to reverse the trend. The polls give him little hope. According to several projections, the PP and Vox of Santiago Abascal would total more than 200 seats, well beyond the 176 necessary for an absolute majority. Sanchez knows it. But an honorable defeat could allow him to prepare for his return. With 25 to 30% of the votes, he would retain the leadership of the PSOE, take the lead of the opposition and let the right wear out in power. Failing to save his majority, Pedro Sanchez intends to save his future. Even if it means losing power so as not to lose control.
