The first barometer from the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) following the housing protests has catapulted the PSOE, which would position itself as the leading force nearly twelve points ahead of the PP. According to the survey conducted between October 1st and 6th, coinciding with the vote in Congress on the Maricarmen decree and the announcement of a snap election, the socialists would obtain 34% of the votes, while the popular party would fall to 22.2%. Regarding the barometer from a month ago, Pedro Sánchez's party would grow by three points (in September the CIS gave them a voting estimate of 31%), while Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party would retreat by 3.3 points (compared to 25.5% in the previous survey). Unlike the drop for the PP, the CIS forecasts growth for Vox, which goes from 16.6% to 17.1% (half a point more) and reduces the distance to the popular party to only 5.1 points, when in September it was 8.9 points.

There were a few weeks, during the height of the Ceuta crisis, when the main question was: why aren't the monarchs visiting the autonomous city after the massive influx of immigrants on July 30th? The day finally arrived this Tuesday, just the day after Hispanic Day, when Felipe VI and Letizia stepped into the autonomous city for the first time and claimed its Spanish identity. "Ceuta is Spain and Europe," the monarch defended in a speech delivered at the end of a day in which he had a crowd bath. It is a delicate trip regarding the diplomatic balances of the Spanish state with Morocco, but the king was clear in his rejection of this summer's "violation of the border." "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country are not negotiable: they are indisputable," he remarked.

The name of Iván Redondo (San Sebastián, 1981), chief of staff to Pedro Sánchez between 2018 and 2021, is associated, just like the socialist leader's, with great publicity stunts. The political consultant was one of the architects of the motion of no confidence with which the Spanish prime minister first came to power. Later, from the pinnacle of Moncloa, he was also decisive in the formation of the first coalition executive between the PSOE and Podemos. After a few years away from the political front line, Redondo has been regaining media presence following the publication at the beginning of May of his book The Manual (Contraluz, 2026) and has not closed the door on a possible return to politics.

A social outburst, two emergency decrees, a snap election in Spain, and a general strike. The magnitude of the consequences of the Maricarmen case explains the shock over the death this Wednesday of the 87-year-old woman, who had become, following her eviction in Madrid, a symbol of the fight for the right to housing. Social movements have been mourning the passing of Maricarmen Abascal since last night and, as expected, her death has fully entered into the pre-campaign for the November 29 elections. Political messages of condolence have turned into crossed attacks between the parties, and the left has erupted against the PP, which has vetoed minutes of silence in memory of the woman in the Senate and in the Assembly and City Council of Madrid.

Two weeks after being evicted and having become a symbol of the fight for housing, Maricarmen Abascal died this Wednesday in Madrid, as announced by the Tenants' Union. This 87-year-old resident of the Retiro district in Madrid had been admitted to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in the Spanish capital since the day of the eviction, September 23, and had not yet been able to return to her home despite the "historic agreement" that allowed her to, signed between the investment fund that owned her apartment and Maricarmen's representatives and relatives as a result of social pressure. Tonight, those camped at the Puerta del Sol improvised a march and a gathering in front of the Congress of Deputies following her death.

It didn't even take an hour for Isabel Díaz Ayuso to generate the first controversy of the electoral pre-campaign. Before Alberto Núñez Feijóo could comment on Pedro Sánchez's decision to call early elections, the Madrid president had already set the agenda by stoking the ghost of electoral fraud. "I ask that no one think of voting by mail," she insisted early Monday at an informative breakfast. Since then, this warning, launched without any proof of the supposed risk of rigging, has become one of the most commented-on topics, and has caused the PP to get tangled up trying to balance things. The leader of the Popular Party, in fact, avoided speaking publicly on the issue for two days until this Wednesday, when he joined Ayuso and her thesis.

Only twenty-four hours after the announcement of early elections, the PP has activated the judicial route against the PSOE. The Popular Party members have registered a filing with the National Court in which they demand the indictment of the socialists for the crimes of illegal financing, bribery, influence peddling, money laundering, and embezzlement. They have presented it as a popular accusation in the case being investigated by magistrate Santiago Pedraz regarding the alleged shady dealings of the PSOE, the so-called Leire Díez case. With this move, the Popular Party members are launching another branch of their artillery against the socialists on the eve of the election campaign.

Joy on the right over Pedro Sánchez's decision to call early elections. Both the PP and Vox have applauded the announcement for November 29, which they see as the definitive opportunity to end the Sanchista era. "Finally, we can close this chapter," celebrated Alberto Núñez Feijóo in an institutional statement at the Popular Party headquarters shortly after the Spanish Prime Minister's announcement. The PP leader has been waiting for years for a second chance to reach La Moncloa after his failed attempt in 2023, and has positioned these new polls as a transcendental occasion in which much more will be done "than choosing between two parties." "This is about making Spain defeat Sánchez and what he represents," proclaimed Feijóo, who urged citizens to decide "if they want four more years of what we are living through or if they want to give change a chance." However, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has gone a step further and has once again fueled the ghost of electoral fraud.

Everyone to the polls. Pedro Sánchez has put an end to the rumors by announcing the end of a legislative term that will be high-stakes until the very last moment. His government had long since lost the majority to approve relevant projects, and the Moncloa was holding out, waiting for the ideal moment to challenge the right-wing parties, the clear favorites to govern from now on. In the PSOE, they believe the moment has arrived with the housing crisis and that they are prepared to face the elections with guarantees. How are the parties arriving at this call to the polls?

The last time he took a few days to reflect, Pedro Sánchez returned with "more strength", ready to "put a stop to the politics of shame". During those five days in April 2024 –in the middle of the election campaign in Catalonia–, everyone was pending his decision, which at the time had to do with the attacks his wife received, today about to be tried for embezzlement and influence peddling. Now things are slightly different: no one expects him to step aside, but everyone is waiting for him to make a decision. Will there be elections before the end of the year? At the PSOE they are prepared and with each passing day the voices pointing out that the legislature has ended are growing.

While Pedro Sánchez considers whether to call early Spanish elections, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the country's main cities to demand solutions to the housing problem. The most massive demonstration was in Madrid, where 70,000 people according to the Spanish government delegation and 500,000 according to the Madrid Tenants' Union launched slogans against political inaction and called for a general strike. "The time for politicians is over," proclaimed Valeria Racu, one of the spokespersons for the Madrid Tenants' Union, the organizing entity, in a media appearance. The inaction from Congress to the housing decrees has caused the horizon of struggle to be set on a general strike that Racu is confident will happen "soon".

Sadness and indignation over the repeal of the decrees and determination to continue the protest. This is the atmosphere that was felt this Friday evening at Puerta del Sol after the plenary session of Congress in which Junts, PP, and Vox struck down the anti-eviction measures and the extension of rental contracts. "We are not leaving, we are staying" and calls for a general strike are some of the slogans that have been heard at the encampment in the center of Madrid, where the protest moved after having concentrated at the doors of the lower house during the morning to exert pressure on the deputies.

A trend is sweeping across Europe. Traditional right-wing parties are collapsing while the far-right continues to rise. The latest country in which this phenomenon has become evident, which is already an indisputable reality in France or Italy, is Germany. The elections last weekend in the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, and those at the beginning of September in Saxony-Anhalt, have been a cold shower for the CDU. The German conservatives, who with their Bavarian allies, the CSU, are the largest national group of the European People's Party in the European Parliament, have succumbed in two of them to the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), considered one of the most radical on the continent.

José María Aznar is clear that the coming months will be turbulent and that the road to the next Spanish elections will be "turbulent". Hence, the former Spanish Prime Minister has issued a warning to Alberto Núñez Feijóo to prevent a repeat of 2023, where he was left at the gates of Moncloa. "A cool head and a firm hand are needed," Aznar stated this Friday at the closing of the FAES Campus, where he was accompanied by the current leader of the PP, who picked up the gauntlet after his predecessor expressed his conviction that Feijóo "is one of the few public men" who can act with the necessary "calm". "That Aznar says he trusts me is not a compliment, it is a challenge," the Galician politician replied.

For years, José María Aznar has been warning of the negative consequences he attributes to the decision to first pardon and then amnesty the pro-independence leaders who drove the Process. It is known that, in his view, the so-called policy of "institutional, political, and social normalization in Catalonia" launched by the PSOE from the Spanish government has posed a "risk" to "the continuity of Spain as a nation" and an "attack" against the Spanish Constitution. This Wednesday, at the inauguration of this year's FAES Campus, the former president of the Spanish executive added one more consequence in the Catalan context.

"Who can expect much from this individual when he should have resigned on October 30, 31, or November 1, 2024?" With these low expectations, the relatives of the DANA victims approached Carlos Mazón's second appearance before Congress, gathered at the doors of the lower house to demand answers from the former president of the Valencian Generalitat. The result was as expected, with a Mazón who once again shrugged off responsibility and refused to provide new explanations, with an impassive demeanor, in the face of questions and attacks from the spokespersons of the parties of the plurinational majority in the investigation commission.

Since July 30, everything surrounding Spanish politics has been viewed through the prism of the crisis in Ceuta. The social and humanitarian deadlock has become a primary political battle between the government, led by the PSOE, and the PP, which heads the Ceuta executive with Juan Jesús Vivas. For this reason, Pedro Sánchez's trip to the 81st edition of the United Nations General Assembly starting this Monday in New York comes at a perfect time for La Moncloa to broaden the focus and also introduce other issues into the political debate. Although executive sources note that Ceuta will be included in the speeches—their intention is to defend their management and the regularization—Sánchez wants to turn New York into a showcase for his model of regulating AI in his discursive fight against tech oligarchs and in a defense of multilateralism and his economic recipe against the rise of the far-right.

"The image of the Community of Madrid government is Formula 1 this past weekend." With these words, Isabel Díaz Ayuso made clear how important the Grand Prix of motoring, dubbed Madring, is for her political project. The Madrid president has fully committed to the event and has turned it into a showcase for her management model, ignoring the criticisms it has generated among residents, the opposition, and even pilots who participated in the urban circuit. The leader of the Madrid PP has defended it by contrasting a supposed defeatism of the left, which would want a diminished capital, with the spectacular nature and "resounding success" of Madrid, which hosts major events and demonstrates to the world an "extraordinary organizational capacity." The F1 arrives at a delicate moment for Ayuso: the luxury penthouse scandal is not fading, and this very Friday she admitted that she went to see the property without the intention of living in it, and the judge has already taken a step to investigate the matter.

No one wanted to buy Isabel Díaz Ayuso's luxury penthouse. The auction of the property remained deserted, according to the documentation from Planifica Madrid, which was finally made known this Thursday. That the attempt to sell the controversial penthouse has been, for the moment, frustrated, became known a few minutes before the Minister of the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, who is the president of Planifica Madrid –the public company that acquired the property for 6.3 million euros and subsequently put it up for sale for almost 6.8–, appeared at the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly. It was a highly anticipated appearance to clarify the unknowns about the operation and it did not convince the opposition. What the minister did respond is that they will put the property up for auction again because they are determined to sell it.

The management of the Ceuta crisis is crossed by judicial decisions. The National Court has halted the installation of the immigrant camp at the port of Ceuta. An initiative by the Spanish government to house a thousand people temporarily, which had clashed with the Ceutan executive. However, it was a police union, the Unified Police Union (SUP), that caused it to be stopped with a very urgent precautionary request. The contentious-administrative chamber of the National Court has agreed to this, at the request of the SUP, until it can study the documentation from the Ministry of Transport and resolve the precautionary measure.