Spanish PM Sánchez calls early election after housing protests
Newshour
The BBC NewsHour covers a wide range of global developments, opening with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling a snap election amid housing protests and corruption scandals. The broadcast then shifts to
Key takeaways
- Pedro Sánchez calls Spain's snap election for Nov 29 to secure a progressive majority amid housing crises and corruption allegations against his inner circle.
- The US Air Force withdrew 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in England within days due to new intelligence on an Iran-backed plot.
Main topics
- Spanish snap election
- US bomber withdrawal from UK
Notable quotes
"It's been a great victory for the protests in the streets."
Conclusion
The episode provides a comprehensive snapshot of shifting political landscapes across Europe and
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Speaker 7 (0:05) The Signal Awards just announced finalists for the best podcasts of 2026. Now it's your turn. From September 29th to October 15th, you decide your favorite shows, hosts, and more in the Listener's Choice Awards. Visit vote.signalaward.com to see finalists in categories like Most Innovative Audio Experience. Make your picks at vote.signalaward.com and tell a friend. Don't wait. Speaker 7 (0:35) The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to peer deeper into the universe than ever before, unlocking some of its greatest secrets. But after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. Speaker 6 (0:47) A significant spherical aberration appears to be present in the optics. Speaker 7 (0:51) National disaster. Hubble launched with flawed mirror. The BBC Space Podcast 30 Minutes is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. The future of space astronomy depends on it. From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, Trouble with Hubble. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Speaker 2 (1:18) Hello, welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. My name's Paul Henley. First today, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called a snap election after Parliament rejected his plan to tackle a growing national housing crisis. Mr Sánchez heads a minority government, and this is a high-risk move. It could signal the end of the European Union's last major socialist-led administration and could remove from power a man who is possibly the most outspokenly anti-Trump leader of all US allied nations. In an early morning televised... address, the Prime Minister said he was seeking a broader majority in Parliament in order to push through vital reform. Speaker 1 (2:02) We must take action and ensure that Parliament gives us a much broader progressive majority with which to bring the elites to heel, secure further social progress. and continue to transform Spain. I have therefore decided to convene an extraordinary council of ministers this very morning to dissolve the Spanish parliament and call a general election to be held on Sunday Speaker 2 (2:24) 29th November. The leader of Spain's popular party, the main opposition in Congress in Madrid, welcomed the new elections, planned for the end of next month, as he said, saying Spain would finally have the chance to speak its mind. Hundreds of thousands of protesters have been marching through Spain's major cities in recent days and weeks to demand affordable housing. Things came to a head when an 87-year-old woman called María del Carmen Abascal was evicted from her home on a stretcher, having been given 30 minutes to gather her belongings. At the time, this is what she had to say. Speaker 7 (3:08) They are inhuman. You can't make somebody live for seven years as I have done with a machete at my throat. And then they cut my throat, and all just to make money at other people's expense. Public Speaker 2 (3:22) outrage follows. Speaker 2 (3:30) Protesters there were chanting, neighbours wake up, eviction is on your doorstep. And here are some reactions in Madrid to that snap election announcement today. Speaker 7 (3:41) I reckon we need an election right now, for sure. We've got to get rid of Pedro Sánchez straight away. At least in my opinion, he's doing a terrible job. As far as I'm concerned, he needs to be out of the government now. Speaker 5 (3:59) It's been a great Speaker 6 (4:00) victory for the protests in the streets. Until last week, we could not have imagined that this would happen. Last Friday proved that Parliament doesn't understand the people's problems, that we're in a very difficult situation, with the cost of living rising and, above all, the abuse taking place in the housing market, and that national elections have been called today to try to resolve this problem, thanks to the protests in the streets. For me, this is Speaker 4 (4:22) a very Speaker 6 (4:22) important victory. Speaker 4 (4:27) I think it's simply a political manoeuvre to stay in power, which is exactly what these politicians have been doing Speaker 2 (4:32) for a long time. All they want is to keep getting re-elected and keep milking the system. Some voters there in Madrid. So what is Prime Minister Sánchez's strategy now? Aitor Hernández Morales is senior reporter for Politico and he's been telling me more. Speaker 3 (4:48) It's an incredible gamble, but at the same time it's... probably his best shot. Sanchez is very much a beleaguered prime minister. He's been in office for eight years now, and he really has been hit by a series of corruption scandals affecting members of his family and his inner political circle. And then later, this ongoing migrant crisis in Ceuta. And above all, we're talking about a man who's been governing in minorities since 2013 and has really struggled to get any legislation passed. It's worth noting that in these years of government, he hasn't been able to pass any budgets. So he really was facing a tough re-election. Elections would have had to have been called in Spain anyway by next summer. And the thinking is that he's looked at these housing protests and he's thought that they are the best shot for him to take ownership of the conversation and for him to bring this campaign to a social area. where the left wing will be more favoured and play at a certain advantage that can surpass what the right would have if this election was focused, for example, on Ceuta and on immigration and national defence. Speaker 2 (5:59) Possible outcomes here. It could be the end of Sanchez politically, could it? It Speaker 3 (6:04) could, it could very much. And that obviously has major impacts on Europe. Santos really does lead what we would consider the last strong socialist government standing in Europe. So his fall would confirm a pivot toward the right, especially in the European Council. The bloc would also lose one of its biggest voices on the international stage in terms of talking against the measures enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sanchez is famously tangled with both of them and fiercely criticized with the war in Gaza and in Iran. And it's an interesting situation because when we look at the polls. What we see is that both Santos' Socialist Party and the main conservative opposition party, the People's Party, they're on track to achieve more or less the same results that they achieved when elections were held three years ago. So this election will actually be decided by the parties on the extremes, the far-right Vox Party and then the fractured left-wing parties that include Sumar and Podemos. And Santis' disadvantage is that while the Vox party has continued to grow over these past three years, the left is in shambles. And it's very difficult to see an outcome where he will have enough people to partner with to remain prime minister. You Speaker 2 (7:26) mentioned the prime minister's political obstacles of recent times. Corruption allegations have been chief among them. Can you fill us in briefly on those? Speaker 3 (7:35) Yes. So Santos himself has not been implicated, but he has ministers who have been implicated. His former transport minister was sentenced to 24 years in jail last June when it was proven that he was involved in influence peddling. There's a separate case looking into whether his socialist party. has been essentially carrying out political operations against his opponents. And then meanwhile, there are several cases involving members of his family. His brother was found guilty earlier this summer of allegedly maneuvering to get a public job. And his wife is facing trial within the next few months, also involving the use of influence that she would have allegedly had. in her role as the prime minister's wife. Speaker 2 (8:25) And the question that most international observers will be asking come the election, what are the chances of the far right getting into power? This is the Vox party that you mentioned. Will the Conservatives, the People's Party, do a deal with them, do you think? Speaker 3 (8:41) It seems extremely likely. And indeed, the Senate People's Party leader, Alberto Nunez-Fejó, has already indicated that he has no issue with partnering with them. Vox is an interesting party to go into business with simply because they know their worth and they have absolutely no problem with saying no if they are not given what they want. Predictably, we may see a government in Spain that not only includes the far right, but that has the far right in pretty crucial ministries. Speaker 2 (9:15) And finally, Pedro Sanchez is a shrewd political operator. He probably knows that he's not going to do brilliantly in these elections. Is there a form of damage control going on? There may Speaker 3 (9:26) be. Look, Sanchez is a political Houdini. He pulls off incredible escape acts. And in 2023, we were convinced he would lose those elections. he ended up finding a way to power. So with Santos, you can never rule everything out. But admittedly, this time around, the odds are very much against it. That Speaker 2 (9:44) was Aitor Hernández Morales, who is senior reporter for Politico in Spain. Now, the United States has rushed over the weekend to withdraw its bomber aircraft from an airbase in the south of England after commanders said they'd received new threats about a plot against the installation backed by Iran last week. An incident at the same airbase, RAF Fairford, led to the arrest of six British people on suspicion of terror offences. This withdrawal is highly unusual. Such moves are rarely made so quickly from an Allied airbase in a peacetime country thousands of miles from a combat zone. The British government's insisted this morning the base is safe. Eric Schmidt is national security correspondent for the New York Times, which broke this story. He told me why removing the bombers was almost unprecedented. Speaker 5 (10:32) Obviously, if these aircraft were in a war zone and faced an imminent threat and they didn't feel they were... properly defended, then, of course, the U.S. would pull them up. But here we are talking about a base in southern England, long time used by these bombers for different missions, most recently in the Iran war. And within a period of 24, 36 hours or so over the weekend, U.S. commanders got new intelligence, that some warnings about an Iran-backed plot that they'd been tracking now for some weeks. that this new information had come in that escalated the threat and created more urgency. And rather than wait, the American Air Force decided to pull all 12 of its B-1 bombers, including some that had just arrived in Speaker 2 (11:20) the last week or so. How precise has Washington been about the nature of this threat? Speaker 5 (11:24) Well, the information that they have is highly classified, so you can imagine that sources aren't going into a lot of detail. But what I have learned from my sources is that they feared that the base and the bombers and the American personnel and British personnel on the base could come under some kind of attack. Of course, this comes a week after five men were arrested near the base in a very bizarre episode. kind of flagged by somebody, a farmer who noticed them very early in the morning, driving three white vans, and they were wearing balaclavas. If Speaker 2 (12:04) this move is largely based on those reports of the five men in balaclavas near the base, they didn't get into the base, mostly they've been released on bail now anyway, then it's quite an extreme response, isn't it? Speaker 5 (12:19) Well, yeah, and that's part of the broader story that we're still trying to dig out because a lot of my sources believe these guys were unwitting dupes, perhaps a diversion