Spain’s Sánchez calls snap election amid national housing crisis – Europe live

In other news, Germany is at ⁠risk of entering a violent ⁠conflict as Moscow ​steps up an increasingly aggressive “shadow war” against European democracies, its head of foreign intelligence warned, as reported by Reuters.

“The confrontation we are facing with Russia has taken ⁠on a new, more dangerous dimension,” Martin Jäger, head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told the annual public hearing of intelligence chiefs in parliament.

“Germany is in danger of becoming embroiled in ⁠a violent conflict with Russia – the attempted attack in Leipzig is just one example,” he said, describing Russia as “waging ​a shadow war” with the threat of attacks against ‌targets in Germany remaining “real and imminent“.

German ‌authorities have warned repeatedly that Russia is conducting a hybrid campaign of drone and cyber-attacks, and have ‌blamed it for an attempted drone attack on Leipzig airport in August.

Jäger, however, said Moscow was prepared to use force to achieve its goals, and that Russian intelligence services’ operations in and against Germany were “increasingly aggressive“.

“Russia ‌is putting us to the test and closely watching how we handle this situation. From the perspective of the Kremlin leadership, any sign of wavering invites them to further increase ​the pressure on Germany.“

Jäger said there was no indication of an imminent large-scale Russian attack on Nato territory.

“However, Russia could engage in low-intensity military activities, particularly in the Baltic states.“

Germany must prepare for more meddling and attempts at intimidation, including threats of nuclear attack, he said.

“Moscow is betting on our weakness”, he added. “We have to stand ⁠up to that.“

Jäger said Moscow was trying to compel Germany, Ukraine’s largest donor, to ​drop its support.

“Russia is determined ​to bring Ukraine to its knees ​this coming winter,” he said. “We must expect Russian attacks of a severity and brutality that we ​have not yet ‌seen.“

Pedro Sánchez only just scraped his return to office following the last general election in July 2023 after he won the backing of Catalan pro-independence parties by promising a controversial amnesty law to those involved in the failed, illegal push for independence from Spain in 2017.

Sánchez’s minority coalition government with the smaller, leftwing Sumar alliance, has struggled to get legislation through a fraught congress and has not passed a budget since 2023. Junts, which offered him its conditional support three years ago, has attempted to extract maximum benefits from the government, only to abandon it when it feels so inclined, as it did with the emergency housing measures.

Nor do his problems end there. The government has also been fiercely criticised over its handling of the continuing crisis in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, which was sparked when around 70,000 people crossed into the territory from neighbouring Morocco in the space of 48 hours.

Last, but by no means least, Sánchez’s administration, party and inner circle have been mired in corruption allegations over the past two years that have proved acutely embarrassing for a prime minister who took office vowing to be a scourge of sleaze and graft.

Faced with all that, it’s not hard to see why the prime minister may have decided that an early election was preferable to several more months of legislative deadlock, mud-slinging and uncomfortable headlines.

Sánchez, a politician with an almost feline allocation of lives, will be hoping that his efforts to tackle the housing crisis will contrast sharply with those of his rightwing opponents and thereby mobilise disenchanted voters.

He was also careful to remind people in his address on Monday that he has been one of the few political leaders to stand up to Donald Trump, to repeatedly criticise Israel over its actions in Gaza, and to warn of the death and destruction caused by the climate crisis.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given what’s at stake, the prime minister is once again pushing to characterise this latest election as a simple choice between progressive and reactionary politics.

“You, the men and women of Spain, must decide whether you want to join the far-right wave that drives regression wherever it governs, or to ensure that Spain remains a bastion of openness, social justice, and environmental responsibility.”

His opponents, meanwhile, will be hoping that, after eight long years, the public has grown tired and disillusioned, and that the great survivor of Spanish politics has finally lost his lustre.

Europe correspondent

Meanwhile in Latvia, prime minister Andris Kulbergs is on track to hold on to power in Riga and will today set about forming a pro-Ukrainian coalition after his centre-right United List party scored an unprecedented victory in last weekend’s elections.

United List won 42 seats in the 100-seat assembly, the biggest parliamentary election victory since Latvia regained independence in ⁠1991, a result Kulbergs put down to “the people truly wanting change”, meaning mainly “economic growth”.

A former businessman and amateur rally driver, Kulbergs, 47, came to power in May ⁠after the previous coalition government collapsed amid uproar over its handling of incidents in which stray Ukrainian military drones flew into Latvia undetected.

He will be forced to change coalition partners since one of the outgoing government’s members failed to clear the 5% parliamentary hurdle and looks able to secure a majority with either ‌the nationalist National Alliance or the liberal Progressives.

Populist parties fared well, with United List followed by the Maga-style Latvia First, which finished second after courting the country’s substantial ethnic Russian minority, with the pro-Russian Sovereign Power third. National Alliance was fourth.

Kulbergs pledged continued support for Ukraine and a hard line towards Moscow. “Any economic ties ‌with Russia makes us weak. Yes, it can bring some extra money, but it’s a weakness Russia might exploit,” he told reporters on Sunday night.

He also promised more anti-drone capability for Latvia and to maintain defence spending at 5% of ​GDP, one of the highest levels in ​Nato. His pro-Kremlin rivals said Latvia should stop ​any aid to Ukraine and instead focus on cost-of-living issues.

Four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine security remains central to political debate in Latvia, which is sandwiched between the Baltic Sea and Russia and Belarus to the east, with EU and Nato allies Estonia and Lithuania to the north and south.

Kulbergs said Russia was its principal security threat. “Because we are the external border of Europe, we must have a strong economy … a strong border region,” Kulbergs said. “That is the main task.”

However, soaring living costs, low wages, an ailing healthcare system and long-term population decline also featured prominently. No Latvian government has survived a full term and analysts say Kulbergs could face an uphill battle even holding together his United List, itself a loose alliance of small parties and independents.

Sam Jones and Ashifa Kassam in Madrid

Members of Sánchez’s administration, his party and his inner circle have also been battling a series of corruption allegations over the past two years.

In July this year, the prime minister’s brother, David Sánchez, was banned from holding public office for nine years after being found guilty of administrative misconduct relating to his hiring by a socialist-led council in the south-western region of Extremadura.

Meanwhile Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gomez, is due to face trial after a judge charged her with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation.

David Sánchez and Begoña Gómez have both denied any wrongdoing, and the prime minister has previously accused his political and media enemies of launching a “harassment and bullying operation” against his family.

María del Carmen Abascal, 87, was evicted from her home, on a stretcher, after being given 30 minutes to gather her belongings.

The Guardian’s European community affairs correspondent, Ashifa Kassam, explains how her eviction sparked protests across Madrid, which led to ‘Maricarmen’ becoming the symbol of a long-running housing rights movement – which now is likely to be a central issue of the upcoming election campaign.

The People’s Party’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo is speaking now, and he begins with what looks to be his party’s top reaction line today: “At last.”

He says Spain “will speak its mind, and will find its voice again.”

“At last, we can close this chapter and open a better one. At last, the person who should never have made it this far can go.”

He says “these are not like any previous elections in our democracy,” as he frames it as a battle for “defeating Sánchez and what he represents.”

“It is a choice between corruption and decency, between decline and prosperity, between a government that aspires only to survive and a country that looks to its future. The question … is whether they want four more years of what we are currently experiencing or whether they want to give change a chance.”

He talks about “corruption” in public institution and funds, “disregard” to social harmony, and “unbearable” cost of living and housing issues.

He says immigration is “out of control” as he draws on the recent migration crisis in Ceuta, while public infrastructure is “deteriorating,” with “power outages and increase insecurity.”

He says it’s all “not a question of money, but of mismanagement.”

“The truth also requires acknowledging that those who created these problems are incapable of solving them. If eight years were not enough, why do they want four more?”

He says Sánchez’s move to call early elections is about damage control and to get ahead of possible other crises.

He then moves on to what looks like to be the key framing of his campaign, as he promises “a government with the authority to lead” and to “rally the nation’s collective energy once again.”

“We must reclaim the pride of belonging to a country that refuses to resign itself to defeat. We must reject the formulas that have already devastated other nations and instead embrace a path where decisions are made by the majority of Spaniards. It comes down to this: decline or change, lies or change, incompetence or change, division or change, corruption or change.”

He then says:

“I am fully aware of the scale of the work that lies ahead. My hand will not tremble; if the Spanish people place their trust in me, I will not betray it.”

And he finishes where he started, saying the vote is coming “at last.”

In terms of technical process behind the snap election, it is now emerging that Sánchez told King Felipe VI about his plans by phone yesterday afternoon, Spanish news agency EFE reported.

The formal decision to dissolve the parliament will be approved at the government’s meeting later this morning.

There was a telling part in Sánchez’s address where he acknowledged some of the voters’ frustrations with his government.

“I know that we have made mistakes and have failed to do everything we had set out to do.

It is also true that there are still many injustices to correct, many social goals to conquer and many problems to solve, especially in the areas of inequality in public services and access to housing.”

To be fair, Sánchez’s has been running a minority government, and that’s not making his life any easier. Hence the direct call that “to do more, we need to renew and expand public support.”

Expect to hear more messaging along these lines: yes, we are not perfect, but we are moving in the right direction trying to secure more of your rights, and not to roll them back.

Can he make another comeback given the state of the polls, though? It would be quite a feat.

The opposition People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo is about to speak in the next 10-15 minutes.

I will keep an eye on his response to Pedro Sánchez’s statement earlier, and will bring you the key lines here.

Sam Jones and Ashifa Kassam in Madrid

The government’s efforts to address the housing crisis were set out in two decrees that contained a range of measures aimed at improving access to housing, from a ban on evictions until 2030 to the regulation of temporary lettings and lettings by room.

But the decrees were voted down in congress on Friday by the conservative People’s party (PP), the far-right Vox party, and the rightwing Catalan pro-independence party Junts.

The PP, which is leading the polls but which may need to rely on Vox’s support to form a government, said it had rejected the government’s plans as it believed that construction, and not regulation, was the best way to tackle the crisis.

The rejection of the decrees met with an angry response from the crowds who had gathered outside congress, eliciting boos and cries of “shame” and “Your profits; our misery”.

Long-brewing fury over the high cost of renting and the precarious nature of many tenancies exploded late last month following the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman who was removed from the home in Madrid where she had lived for 70 years. Abascal said she could not possibly afford the 230% rent hike demanded by the investment fund that bought her apartment.

Her plight prompted tens of thousands of people to take to the streets to protest, and saw a huge tent camp reminiscent of the 2011 indignados movement spring up in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square.

Over the weekend, large demonstrations were held across the country as protesters stepped up their demands for urgent action on the housing crisis. Authorities said 70,000 people had taken part in a protest in Madrid on Saturday, while organisers put the figure at 500,000.

Although polls consistently place the PP well ahead of Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party – and show that support for Vox is growing – the prime minister may be hoping that the focus on housing, and the right’s rejection of his government’s plans to address the crisis, will mobilise leftwing voters.

The housing issue has also served to deflect attention from the government’s much-criticised handling of the continuing crisis in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, which was sparked when around 70,000 people crossed into the territory from neighbouring Morocco in the space of 48 hours.

Pedro Sánchez is clearly hoping to mobilise voters around the housing crisis and the broader message of home, with opinion polls suggesting his left-wing government might otherwise struggle to retain power.

The conservative People’s Party (PP) looks most likely to take first place and could be take power alongside the far-right Vox party. Polling currently puts the PP on roughly 32-34%, well clear of Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE) on 26-27%. Vox sits in third place on 18-19%, comfortably ahead of smaller left-wing rivals Sumar (5-6%) and Podemos (2-3%).

Vox’s potential entry into a governing coalition would mark the first time a far-right party has held power in Spain since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975.

A defeat for Sánchez would bring down one of western Europe’s few remaining left-leaning administrations at a time when populist and conservative parties are making gains across the continent.

Sánchez’s decision also brings forward one of Europe’s most closely watched electoral contests – originally slated for 2027 alongside major votes in France, Italy, and Poland.