Sánchez promises to listen to "the street" on the issue of housing and Feijóo defends "a forceful change"

BarcelonaHigh-voltage pre-campaign in Spain for the November 29th elections. In the middle of 2026, eight years after Pedro Sánchez became President of the Spanish government, the PP depicts an apocalyptic scenario in the event of not winning the elections alongside Vox to promote a "decisive change", while the Spanish government promises, now for sure, to solve housing problems with courage and fight against those who "pull the strings" and harm the working classes. In the Andalusian town of Dos Hermanas and in Madrid, socialists and conservatives have contrasted two apparently antagonistic models of the country using language that has long denoted aggression.

Sánchez, accompanied by the former vice president and current PSOE campaign coordinator, María Jesús Montero, has tried to mobilize the entire left-wing base, concluding that the right wants few Spaniards to vote and that, therefore, a majority of citizens who support the socialist leader, in the opinion of the head of the state government, will not be expressed. He has done so with symptomatic messages before the mobilization of tens of thousands of people following the Maricarmen Abascal case, the 87-year-old woman evicted by a fund: Sánchez has promised to go "as far as the street wants" in housing policies, with the goal of "bringing into law what people feel." A nod to more left-wing voters that he seasoned with criticism of the right's "messages of fear": "These ones from the whoever can do it, let them do it [in reference to the phrase by former president José María Aznar against the Spanish government following the approval of the amnesty] are now those of the fewer who vote the better", he retorted.

According to his criteria, with the debate opened by the Spanish right about postal voting "they are spreading the lie because they are afraid of losing", which he has predicted will happen. The PP has warned of a supposed authoritarian horizon if the PSOE wins and has questioned the fairness of the elections by calling postal voting into question, which brings back to the table the accusation of possible electoral fraud; an accusation identical to that of 90 years ago by the right-wing bloc.

However, with a significant voter base of small property owners, Sánchez has also defended the anti-eviction decree as a tool that "clearly protects the small property owner and the tenant". For this reason, he has rejected "pitting small property owners against tenants", because it is necessary to "look up" and "end the speculation and abuses of the penthouses[in reference to the apartment bought by Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government] and the vulture funds". Be that as it may, the decrees are a lever for his pre-campaign and a promise that he says he will reinforce if he is elected again.

The right, on the attack

For his part, the Popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has made a total amendment to Sánchez and has promised "a serene, but forceful change". The serenity for the "national reconstruction", however, is accompanied by discursive harshness: "I do not come from saunas or sewers, I come from management", he said, and mentioned alleged scandals surrounding the Spanish president or the PSOE. Serenity is also not "alternance", as he has been repeating in recent months, but a total turn for Spain. With José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy in the audience, with multiple regional presidents of the PP, the Galician leader asked Sánchez "who in the PSOE gave the order to get rid of the judge who is investigating" the leader's brother, David Sánchez. "Who in the government party gave the order to hire hitmen to get rid of a problem? It is a democratic question", he said about the alleged maneuvers of the PSOE to scare the judge.

Feijóo has asked that "no one ever again override the rules"; not even them, he said, without making reference to the multiple cases of corruption that have plagued the formation, such as that of the former minister in the Rajoy era, Cristóbal Montoro. He also promised that he will not manipulate or sell himself "to govern", although he has already assumed that he will make pacts with Vox, despite the impact that the agreed national priority has already caused in various communities.

Controversy in Sol

Anchored in inflammatory rhetoric, the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has also been a protagonist, insisting on asking whether there is a group "with terrorist backgrounds" at the housing encampment in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid.