Pedro Sánchez suffers a setback in Congress over his housing plan and is left on the brink of the precipice

MADRID.– The Maricarmen decree, pushed by the Spanish government after the high-profile eviction of the 87-year-old woman from the apartment where she lived in Madrid, has its hours numbered in Congress. Despite intense negotiations led by the Socialist Party (PSOE), its ally Junts per Catalunya publicly rejected the text and left Pedro Sánchez on the brink of the precipice. Opposition figures and even government ministers are treating an early election call as a concrete possibility that would allow the political situation to be unblocked and, thus, make progress on state policies capable of addressing, in this case, the housing crisis. "This government will not take a single step back in its fight for the right to housing. The decrees we have presented serve to curb speculation, facilitate access to a first home, promote affordable rents and stop evictions, as we saw today with the case of Macarena in Barcelona," Sánchez wrote last night on the social network X, after the Catalan conservatives' rejection of the proposal they themselves had agreed with the Socialists had already been made public. "The moment of truth has arrived," Sánchez closed his message. That last phrase fueled speculation both inside and outside La Moncloa. Is Sánchez preparing an early election? Within the cabinet that possibility is being weighed, and there is even speculation about November 29 as the date for the call to the polls, as reported by the outlet elDiario.es. And they explain that there would be unanimity within the PSOE to make that decision, which could be announced in the coming hours. From the Socialists' perspective, they are convinced that, facing an adverse electoral scenario with the Popular Party as the clear favorite, this is the best possible moment. The housing crisis that sparked an encampment at the Puerta del Sol could be the element Sánchez has been waiting for to mobilize the progressive electorate to the polls. They are convinced that, beyond ideological positioning, a majority of Spaniards favor state intervention in the real estate market. Miriam Nogueras, spokesperson for the Catalan independence party Junts per Catalunya, during her speech. JAVIER SORIANO - AFP A poll published today by the newspaper El País indicates that 67% of those surveyed (including more than half of Popular Party and Vox voters) are in favor of limiting housing prices. Those numbers would have finally emboldened La Moncloa, which a week earlier had been cornered by the migration crisis in Ceuta. Some of its left-wing allies, however, asked Sánchez to keep calm. From the floor, deputy Gabriel Rufián (Esquerra Republicana) asked the president to act with a "cool head" in the coming hours. "They should understand that this is not about being an ambulance, but rather they must understand that they have nothing to their left to add," he said. He was referring to the reconfiguration of the left-wing parties, which were preparing a renewal—still unfinished—for an election ideally to be held in 2027. Spain's Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez (left), the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun (center), and the Minister of Health, Mónica García, during the session. JAVIER SORIANO - AFP From the PP, the leader of the opposition, they did nothing more than repeat what they have been claiming for months: an early election. "Neither with decrees nor without decrees can things continue like this. Elections Now," the party published today on its X account. "If your policies make us worse off every day, isn't it time for a change?" questioned deputy Bravo, vice president of the party. And he stressed: "More housing is needed, not more interventionism." Sánchez last managed to pass the budget, the thermometer for measuring his parliamentary support, in 2023. Since then, the state has extended the law due to the lack of support for the executive's proposals in Congress. An endless encampment The political crisis over access to housing began on Saturday, when the Tenants' Union decided to camp out in Sol, in central Madrid, in protest of the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, who had to leave her home when she could no longer pay the rent increase imposed by an investment fund. The group remains in a massive encampment in front of the seat of government of the Community of Madrid. The Socialist government had reacted to the crisis sparked by the Maricarmen case with a package of measures that it brought to Congress today. But those proposals had already drawn criticism from across the ideological spectrum—some for being conservative and others for being interventionist. The Tenants' Union had questioned the division of the package of measures into two decrees, which, they indicated, left "leftovers" of a fundamental reform for access to housing. Tenants and housing rights activists gather in front of the Congress of Deputies in Madrid during a demonstration called by the Madrid Tenants' Union. Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi - ZUMA Press Wire DPA The first decree drafted at La Moncloa contained the proposals that generated the most consensus within the governing coalition, and the second was made up of the most controversial initiatives, all pushed by Sumar, the PSOE's main left-wing ally. But the government failed to pass even the first decree, which contained "minimum" measures, according to the Tenants' Union. The first decree included the automatic renewal of leases for an indefinite period and a price freeze, a combination criticized by experts because it could shrink the real estate market. The second decree established, for example, that a property owner must pay a tenant compensation equivalent to 12 months of rent if they did not wish to renew the contract. Tenants and housing rights activists gather in an encampment in front of Congress, in Madrid. Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi - ZUMA Press Wire DPA After the rejection of the decree, the Tenants' Union will announce in the coming hours a general strike across Spain to demand action on the housing crisis. What will happen to the encampment in Sol, which keeps thousands of young people on the street, remains to be defined. Spain Pedro Sánchez