Sánchez launches early election: property speculation offloads costs onto ordinary citizens, Ceuta immigration crisis runs in parallel

Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez on Saturday launched the campaign for a November 29 early general election in the town of Dos Hermanas, near Seville. According to France 24 and AFP reports, what was at stake was the stalling in parliament of a housing emergency decree pushed by his minority government — when a housing issue evolves into a political crisis capable of reshaping the electoral calendar, the social fractures behind it can no longer be concealed.

The housing crisis has been given a human face in the figure of an 87-year-old Madrid pensioner. Maricarmen Abascal, evicted from her home two weeks ago, swiftly became the public face of this chronic crisis. Sánchez paid tribute to her at Saturday's rally, quoting: "Maricarmen and all those who campaigned for her, and all those who have taken action for the just cause of housing, have blazed the trail." Yet Abascal did not live to see this election — she died in hospital on Wednesday.

Sánchez pledged that, if the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party wins an outright parliamentary majority, he will strengthen legislation to protect tenants from real estate speculation. On the streets, hundreds of protesters have set up camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol and in several other cities, demanding stronger protections for tenants and greater supply of affordable housing. Reports also noted that major trade unions have called a nationwide strike for November 11 — the first such action in the country since 2012 — aimed squarely at housing and wage issues. The structural contradiction of property speculation offloading its costs onto ordinary citizens is being pushed to the centre of the election in the form of strikes, evictions and deaths.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People's Party, declared at a Madrid rally on Sunday: "Spain needs a future, and he [Sánchez] needs to step back into the past. What we propose is a complete change." Quoting polls, France 24 and AFP noted that Sánchez trails the People's Party in most surveys, but Feijóo likewise struggles to win a parliamentary majority. This makes Vox, the third-largest party in parliament and on the far right, a potential make-or-break factor in coalition negotiations.

Ceuta has become the election's second battleground. In late July, more than 70,000 migrants crossed into this Spanish North African enclave from neighbouring Morocco, with thousands stranded for months amid chaotic conditions. Feijóo travelled there on Wednesday for campaign events, pledging to restore local order as a line of attack against what he cast as the Sánchez government's failures on immigration.

The divisions among voters are equally profound. Isabel Morales, a 67-year-old pensioner, told AFP at a Sánchez rally that she considered his time in office "very positive," that he had "done a great deal for the working class," including raising wages, raising pensions and enacting housing legislation; at a People's Party rally, Rubén Moscoso, a 31-year-old public-sector employee, said he hoped to "pull the country out of the recent decline, corruption and shady dealings." Who will bear the cost of this crisis remains the question this election leaves for voters.