Spain’s Congress rejected two government housing decrees. Sánchez must now decide whether to call an early election as protests over rents and evictions spread beyond Madrid.
The first housing decree lost by 178 votes to 172 in Spain's Congress on 2 October 2026. The second failed 184 to 166 in the 350-seat chamber. The defeats left the coalition without the measures it had presented as an urgent response to the housing crisis.
Moncloa sources said Pedro Sánchez would use the weekend to decide whether to call voters to the polls. If he does, 29 November would be the first Sunday permitted by electoral law. BBC and the Associated Press reported that the votes immediately revived talk of bringing the election forward from 2027.
The pressure rose fast.
Both decrees failed after months of negotiations and a final appeal from Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez. Partido Popular, Vox and Junts per Catalunya voted against them.
Spain’s Congress rejected the two housing decrees on 2 October 2026: the first vote ended 178–172 and the second 184–166.
Junts had asked the government to withdraw the decrees. The government went ahead anyway. Rodríguez said roughly 90% of Junts' proposals had been included and urged the Catalan party to abstain at minimum.
Míriam Nogueras rejected that request. She submitted a 59-page alternative package for further negotiations behind closed doors.
The vote also pushed housing deeper into the wider election calculation described in an earlier report. The ordinary electoral timetable runs to 2027. Pressure for an earlier vote had already grown among PSOE figures before the sitting began.
The first decree brought together the main parts of the government's plan. It would have extended protection against evictions until 2030. It also set rules for seasonal and room rentals, restricted certain purchases by investment funds and large operators until 2028, and allowed extraordinary extensions for some rental contracts.
The second decree dealt mainly with automatic renewal of rental agreements. The aim was to stop some tenants from losing protection when their contracts expired.
The parliamentary defeat immediately revived speculation in the Spanish press that the government could move the next general election forward from 2027. Reports said Sánchez planned to use the weekend to consider whether to seek another legislative route or dissolve Parliament, with 29 November 2026 identified as the earliest Sunday available under the reported timetable.
Junts' alternative package called for negotiated rental extensions, tax changes and protections for mortgage debtors. It proposed temporary limits on purchases by financial institutions, investment funds and major landlords.
The package also sought to suspend certain evictions promoted by large operators until the end of 2028. It included protections for vulnerable people facing eviction and state guarantees to expand social or affordable housing.
Outside Congress, the political defeat was already visible on the streets.
Hundreds of activists marched in Madrid and called for a general strike. The camp at Puerta del Sol entered its seventh day. Organisers said they would stay until a solution to the housing crisis was found.
They also called demonstrations in around 50 cities for Saturday 3 October. Al Jazeera reported protests linked to the parliamentary vote. The demonstrations reflected wider anger over rents, evictions and access to affordable homes.
The immediate trigger was the case of Maricarmen Abascal. The 87-year-old woman was evicted on 23 September from the Retiro flat where she had lived for more than seven decades.
She returned after Madrid City Council mediated an agreement with the property company. Tenant organisations said the mobilisation reflected years of higher rents, limited access to housing and the displacement of residents from some neighbourhoods.
The failed decrees will not ease those pressures. They would have offered temporary protections and new limits, but they remained proposals rather than a settled answer to the shortage and cost of housing.
Junts, PP and Vox rejected the measures for different reasons. ERC, EH Bildu, PNV, Podemos and Coalición Canaria urged Junts to reconsider its position.
The numbers tell only part of the story.
Sánchez now has two clear options. He can seek another legislative route, or he can turn the defeat into an electoral test.
The government could not pass its housing response. That gives the opposition a clear parliamentary victory and leaves tenants without the new protection promised in the decrees.
The protests will continue to shape the debate. The housing strategy failed in Congress. Any decision on an early election will be judged against that result, not against a reform that was never completed.
