Sawt Falasteen - Spain PM calls early election after housing crisis defeat

The defeat on Friday was just the latest political setback for the Socialist premier, one of the few European prime ministers from the left still in power.

"To do more, we need to renew and broaden the support of the people," Sanchez, in office since 2018, said in a televised address, adding his aim was "to secure a much broader, progressive majority in parliament".

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in Madrid and other cities in Spain on Saturday to demand affordable housing.

The government's proposed measures, which included automatic renewal of tenancy contracts and restrictions on evicting vulnerable tenants, were voted down by opposition parties in Spain's parliament.

The defeat infuriated those protesting the country's increasingly expensive housing market and underscored the difficulties his minority coalition government faces in passing legislation.

Spain has been operating under its 2023 budget, the last national spending plan passed by Sanchez's government, for several years.

The demonstrations extended a crisis that has gone on for more than a week, triggered by the eviction last month of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her Madrid flat where she had lived for decades.

Hundreds of protesters have been occupying a tent city set up more than a week ago in the heart of Madrid to press for reforms.

Recent opinion polls have generally placed the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) ahead of the Socialists.

- Soaring prices -

Housing has for years been a top concern for Spaniards as supply falls short of demand, with rents and house prices rising as elsewhere in the European Union.

Average rents in Spain have almost doubled over the past decade, while asking prices for homes have risen by about 90 percent, according to real estate website Idealista.

Abascal's eviction catalysed long-running anger about runaway housing costs.

The pensioner was forced to leave the Madrid flat where she had lived for more than seven decades after it was acquired by an investment company that sought to increase her rent by 275 percent, say housing campaigners.

The backlash led the new owners to reach a deal allowing her to return to the flat at a low rent.

The housing bills Sanchez's leftist coalition had presented to parliament were rejected after the Catalan separatist party Junts -- on whose support the government relies -- voted against them, arguing they were hastily drawn up and would make the housing crisis worse.

- 'Can take no more' -

Sanchez defended his government's record in his address, pointing out that under his leadership Spain's economy has grown faster than those of its main European peers.

But after eight years in power, Sanchez is also under pressure from corruption scandals involving people close to him, including his wife and top figures in his Socialist Party.

The prime minister has also faced widespread criticism over his handling of the crisis in the north African enclave of Ceuta, where thousands of migrants from Morocco entered in late July.

The situation at the European land border with Africa has gradually deteriorated, with many migrants still sleeping in makeshift camps.

The events have fuelled tensions and almost daily protests by local residents calling for a return to normality.

The head of the PP, Alberto Nunez Feijóo again called on Sanchez on Saturday to call an election, saying the country "can take no more".

While polls put the PP ahead, they suggest the aprty would fall short of an absolute majority in parliament and would need the support of far-right Vox to govern.

J.Saleh--SF-PST