History will judge them,
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned lawmakers before parliament rejected his government’s housing relief measures on October 2, 2026. The political defeat triggered nationwide demonstrations across Spain on October 3, 2026, deepening a national crisis sparked by the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her Madrid home of seven decades.
Authorities estimated the crowds at 70,000, while organizers placed the figure as high as 500,000 as protests filled the streets of Madrid and at least 50 other Spanish cities. Demonstrators waved signs calling for a general strike and chanting slogans condemning real estate speculation.
Protesters in cities such as Seville, Bilbao, Vitoria, Donostia, Pamplona, Segovia, Valencia, Zaragoza, and Malaga carried placards bearing messages like Not one more eviction, right to housing at a fair price, and Move in not move away.
Demonstrators also displayed images of vultures to protest investment funds.
Parliament Rejects Emergency Housing Decrees
Spain’s Congress of Deputies rejected two emergency decree-laws put forward by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government on October 2, 2026. The legislative package included a proposed ban on evictions until December 31, 2030, for vulnerable people without housing alternatives, alongside regulations on temporary lettings and rooms.
The first decree failed by 178 votes to 172, while the second fell. The conservative People’s Party, the far-right Vox, and the Catalan pro-independence party Junts voted against both measures. Lawmakers from the People’s Party defended their opposition by arguing that construction, rather than market controls, offered the true remedy for affordability pressures.
The conservative Popular Party argued that it had voted in line with its belief that building new homes was the best way to address the crisis. Meanwhile, parliamentary spokeswoman Miriam Nogueras of Junts stated that lumping everyday owners who invested savings into a flat or property together with major investors was a mistake.
The collapse of the decrees also swept away an extraordinary limitation on annual rent increases, as well as state-backed loan programs managed by the Official Credit Institute that were designed to finance up to 20 percent of a first-home purchase.
Eviction of Maricarmen Abascal Ignites Protests
Real estate investment firm Urbagestión acquired the building in 2018, and her monthly rent was hiked by 275 percent to €2,650, according to tenants’ unions. The legislative battle unfolded against the backdrop of intense public fury over the treatment of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, who uses a wheelchair and had lived in her Madrid apartment in the Retiro district since 1956.
On September 23, 2026, police officers enforced her eviction, carrying her out of the building on a stretcher in front of cordoned-off reporters and hundreds of protesting onlookers. Televised images of the octogenarian’s removal triggered immediate nationwide outrage and galvanized renters across the country.
Abascal’s lawyer announced that the property owners had reached a preliminary agreement allowing her to return to the apartment under terms matching her prior rate, equivalent to roughly 30 percent of her pension over the next eight years, or about €500 a month, following days of public backlash and hospital recovery. Yet the concessions for one tenant failed to quell a movement demanding systemic reform.
Activists Protest and Clash in Spanish Cities
Activists and housing union members responded to the parliamentary defeat by maintaining a persistent tent encampment in Puerta del Sol, one of Madrid’s busiest squares. Demonstrators utilized megaphones and carried banners bearing slogans such as Your profits, our misery
as they marched toward Plaza de Cibeles.
Officers deployed tear gas and rubber bullets after demonstrators threw metal fencing at police barricades and entered the City of the Arts and Sciences during clashes between protesters and riot police in Valencia, while demonstrations remained largely peaceful across 50 cities.
Opposition Demands Snap Election After Vote
Prime Minister Sánchez faces mounting political jeopardy following the defeat of his housing agenda, with opposition leaders demanding a snap election before the next scheduled general vote in 2027. Following the vote, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the main opposition conservative Popular Party, urged Sánchez to call elections as soon as possible, stating that the country could not take any more.
Speaking before the parliamentary vote, Sánchez warned lawmakers that history would judge them for opposing tenant protections. Still facing public scrutiny over the Ceuta crisis, Sánchez told the public he was working against the clock to bring new housing regulations into law for Maricarmen and millions of suffering Spaniards.
Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez defended the administration’s next steps as the rejection of the decrees exposed severe cracks in the minority government’s legislative coalition, particularly the refusal of Catalan separatists in Junts to back measures they deemed insufficiently protective of smaller property owners.