Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain, one of Europe’s premier political escape artists, had searched in vain for months for a route to remain in power after nearly a decade in office. He had tried to rally his left-wing base by presenting himself as a counterweight to President Trump, clashing with him on issues like the environment and the war in Iran. But scandals among Mr. Sánchez’ inner circle kept dragging him down. He won leftist plaudits for giving a pathway to legal status to more than a million undocumented people, whom he presented as critical to the economy’s continued growth. But a chaotic surge of 80,000 migrants in July into Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa, muddied that picture and instead gave the conservative opposition a shot of energy.
So when Spanish lawmakers, including many conservatives, rejected Mr. Sánchez’ proposal on Friday for emergency renter protections popular with left-wing Spaniards, he seized on the defeat as an opportunity to regain the political initiative. He pulled the plug on his third consecutive government, called for early elections on Nov. 29 and, in a nationally televised speech Monday morning, framed the contest as a choice “to move backward or to keep moving forward.” The housing protections, which would have suspended evictions until 2030, were made in response to public outrage over the eviction last month of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid.
Mr. Sánchez, who is trailing in the polls, said Spaniards must now choose between joining “that far-right wave that brings regression wherever it governs” or keeping Spain as “a bastion of openness, social justice and environmental responsibility.” On Tuesday, he fueled that narrative by announcing plans to push through the housing measures while Parliament breaks for the election. The call for new elections adds to a period of destabilization in Europe, with students protesting poor school conditions in France, an industrial downturn and a far-right party surge in Germany, and inflation going up seemingly everywhere.
Under his government, the Spanish economy has emerged as one of the European Union’s fastest-growing, tax revenue has shot up, and unemployment has shrunk. The country’s main conservative opposition party, the Popular Party, argues that Mr. Sánchez’ record is much more mixed and aims to make the coming election a referendum on Mr. Sánchez himself. His critics have seized on a raft of corruption cases including his closest advisers in the Socialist Party, his wife and his brother to paint a picture of a crooked regime that is abusing its power.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing