After the government’s housing decrees were defeated in the Congress plenary session, Pedro Sánchez informed the head of state and called general elections for 29 November 2026. Pedro Ruiz says Spain faces 54 days of political convulsion as confrontation between the political blocs worsens, with housing protests and labour tensions mounting.
The actor and humourist holds the country’s leaders responsible. In a post dated 6 October and attributed to Ruiz, he was quoted as saying: “I am deeply troubled by the atmosphere of confrontation intensifying ahead of the coming elections. It is a general failure by all the politicians in charge.”
The camp at Puerta del Sol grew out of a tenants’ protest linked to the attempted eviction of María Carmen Abascal, an elderly woman who had lived in her flat for about 70 years.
Spanish press reports said the People’s Party opposed the housing measures. Vox and Junts opposed them as well. The government’s institutional communications, published through La Moncloa, identify 29 November 2026 as the polling date.
Housing activists and organised labour are adding pressure as the campaign takes shape. Reports of a CCOO and UGT general strike against the PP and Vox on 11 November have not been confirmed as an official nationwide call by the unions. The protest movement has called for a “rent strike” and wider mobilisation over housing.
At Puerta del Sol, the number of tents has grown since the first ones were installed on Saturday 26 September. Antena 3 reported more than 2,000 tents at the housing protests and said the action had no pre-announced end date. Whether the camp will remain when voters go to the polls is unknown.
The camp has become the subject of a legal dispute. The government’s State Attorney’s Office asked the High Court of Madrid not to dissolve it, while regional authorities sought its temporary closure. For now, the court has declined to order the camp’s removal. The dispute also featured in a Madrid housing report that received wider recent coverage, giving the political conflict a fixed location in the capital.
Businesses around the square have felt the effects. Spanish press reports described the prolonged protest’s impact as mixed, with owners concerned about customer traffic in the evenings and at weekends. Some linked the problem less to the camp itself than to perceptions of the surrounding atmosphere.
Before his latest criticism, Ruiz had forecast a period of speeches and affronts. He did not endorse either side of the confrontation. His intervention condemned the failure of those in charge to lower the temperature.
The housing crisis has become a social mobilisation and a political liability for the government. The election campaign will run alongside the housing dispute, while possible labour mobilisation keeps up the pressure. The confrontation has reached Congress and the streets, with no indication that tensions have eased.
