The snap election prompted El Hormiguero to move up its political affairs segment. Carlos Latre parodied Pedro Sánchez with a proposal for Puerta del Sol, while Pablo Motos invited the president and other leaders to explain their plans in interviews of about 70 minutes.
Royal Decree 806/2026 dissolved Congress and the Senate and set the general election for November 29, LaSexta reported. The announcement changed El Hormiguero’s running order, bringing its political affairs segment forward.
Then came the parody. Dressed as Pedro Sánchez, Carlos Latre rode onto the set on an electric scooter. His proposal was to rezone Puerta del Sol and build subsidized housing.
The idea took a stranger turn: information from the fictional president, people in the housing encampment could stay at Pablo Motos’s house. The scene drew laughter from those present.
Motos then changed the tone. The presenter said the team had spoken with Moncloa that same afternoon and invited Sánchez onto the program.
The invitation was serious. Motos said he wanted to welcome the president to the set and offered him about 70 minutes to explain his plans and election proposals.
The joke and the invitation were connected. Latre exaggerated the situation of the people camped in Sol, while Motos called on Sánchez to return to a show he had visited during the previous election campaign.
Puerta del Sol was already at the center of a dispute over whether the encampment in Madrid could remain, as reported in this earlier Sol report. The program turned that conflict into political fiction: the rezoning was impossible, and the housing solution ended with the campers at the presenter’s own home.
Motos’s offer extended beyond Sánchez. He also proposed inviting the basic political forces, with 70 minutes for each candidate to explain what they wanted to do.
The presenter argued that the campaign should let Spaniards decide what they want, whether or not they agree with the majority’s decision. El Confidencial and La Razón reported that the team presented the proposal to the president as a genuine invitation. elDiario.es also reported that it was a genuine invitation.
There was a precedent. Sánchez had been accused of granting interviews only to programs sympathetic to him. During the previous campaign, but, he sat down with presenters considered critical of his policies. His earlier appearance on El Hormiguero gave Motos a concrete basis for extending the invitation again.
The election announcement also reached the Puerta del Sol encampment, where participants learned of the snap election. elDiario.es reported that some interpreted it as a possible attempt to shift responsibility. LaSexta described the campers’ reaction as marked by skepticism and uncertainty.
The encampment was large. Infobae reported that it had more than 2,000 tents by October 5. The protest began after Saturday’s demonstrations in support of housing demands and was starting to spread into nearby streets.
The election was formalized with the publication of Royal Decree 806/2026 in the Boletín Oficial del Estado. LaSexta reported that the decree dissolved Congress and the Senate and set the election for November 29.
The proposal for Sol was political humor, not a housing measure. Motos presented the invitation to Sánchez as genuine.
The program turned an immediate political development into a parody, then tied the joke to an offer of extended interviews for candidates. The comic punchline was the false promise about Puerta del Sol; Motos’s invitation shifted the scene toward the program’s election coverage.
