Spain – Sánchez: I have decided to call early elections for 29 November

MADRID, 5 October /ATSH-ANSA/ – I have decided to convene the Council of Ministers today precisely in order to dissolve Parliament and call early elections for the date of 29 November, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared from the Moncloa Palace.

Thousands of citizens took to the streets yesterday in defence of the right to housing. The protests were accompanied by whistling and the noise of keys, pots and pans.

The protesters expressed anger and disappointment after the rejection in the Congress of Deputies of two legal decrees approved by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government, which aimed to address the housing crisis.

The decrees were rejected by a right-wing parliamentary majority, composed of the People’s Party, Vox and the Catalan force Junts per Catalunya.

In Madrid, the protesters marched chanting “Shame!” and “Speculators out of our neighbourhoods!”.

According to the capital’s authorities, about 70,000 people took part in the protest, while the Tenants’ Union estimated participation at more than half a million.