Spain’s parliament rejected two housing bills on Friday. By Saturday, protesters had filled streets across dozens of cities as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez weighed calling a snap election. The measures would have curbed speculative practices, extended eviction protections for vulnerable tenants and automatically renewed existing contracts. The votes failed. Tenants took their demands back to the streets.
In Madrid, four columns crossed the capital’s main boulevards and converged on Cibeles Square. The Spanish Tenants Union, which organized the demonstrations, said 500,000 people took part; the government’s delegation in Madrid estimated 70,000. Euronews reported the same gap, with organisers claiming around 500,000 and authorities estimating about 70,000. Activists had also camped for about a week in Puerta del Sol, one of the capital’s main tourist squares.
The votes, and the people outside
Parliament rejected the first decree by 172 votes to 178 and the second by 166 to 184. PP, Vox and UPN voted against the measures, while Junts refused to support them. The arithmetic inside was settled. Outside, the Spanish Tenants Union said there was “an irreparable disconnect between what the people want and what the parties vote for.”
The bills followed the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the apartment where she had lived since 1956. Housing campaigners said an investment company bought the property and sought to raise her rent by 275%. Public backlash prompted the new owners to let her return at a low rent. Euronews reported that Abascal was carried out on a stretcher and was recovering in hospital.
Average rents in Spain had risen nearly 90% over the past decade, Spanish Tenants Union spokesperson Valeria Racu said. The union is demanding a 50% rent cut, open-ended contracts and the expropriation of homes from vulture funds. Racu said the movement “won’t tolerate inaction any longer.”
“The people on the streets once again hold the power,” Racu said. She added: “Eight days of people power have achieved more than eight years of progressive government.” The movement would keep pressuring politicians “regardless of who governs this country,” she said, and was negotiating with other organisations over a general strike, though no date had been set. Organisers want it to be “historic.”
A property summit behind a police cordon
In Valencia, protesters marched toward the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, where the Valencia Real Estate Summit 2026 property investment conference was taking place. Former Cs leader Albert Rivera was among its speakers. Some protesters removed barriers and the police cordon, then threw objects at officers; police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. Several people reached the building’s upper part. Four organisations, including the Tenants’ Union and the Housing Union, had called the march.
Demonstrations also took place in Donostia, Cádiz and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with further rallies in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Tenerife. In Donostia, a protest called by the LAB union with the Tenants’ Union’s backing entered its second consecutive day. Cádiz organisers said average rent was about 900 euros and buying a home cost 200,000; the march ended at City Hall with a manifesto reading. In Barcelona, camp member Luana Rocha told TVE: “We are heading towards a general strike.”
The electoral circus waits in the wings
Sánchez had been in office since 2018, and protesters accused him of failing to address the housing crisis during that period. After the bills’ defeat, senior government figures indicated he was considering an early election. He stayed out of sight and weighed his options. Sánchez alone would decide whether to call one.
The possibility of a vote sent Spain’s fractured left scrambling over who might lead it. Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz declined to run for reelection. Health Minister Mónica García and Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun were viewed as frontrunners to succeed her in leading the Sumar party; Podemos leader Irene Montero and former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau were also positioning themselves to lead a broader left-wing alliance.
The People’s Party led electoral polls with 34% support and was open to forming a government with Vox, polling at 18%. Sánchez’s Socialists had 26% support and would need the fragmented left to unite behind an alliance capable of winning enough seats to form a coalition. The ballots may rearrange the parties. Racu’s warning concerned the streets: “The feelings of disaffection, desperation, disillusionment and sadness have been replaced by a new energy on the streets.”