Sánchez evicted: resignation and elections for November 2026

Pedro Sánchez has resigned and called a general election in Spain for 29 November 2026, according to Gorka Maneiro's article in Vozpópuli. Maneiro argues that the real goal is not to win, but to crush the left to his own left, hold on at the helm of the PSOE (the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and come back later.

The resignation of **Pedro Sánchez** and the calling of a general election for **29 November 2026** have turned Spain's political chessboard upside down. Columnist **Gorka Maneiro** publishes an uncomfortable reading in **Vozpópuli**: the move is not about winning, but about surviving. According to his analysis, Sánchez has not called the election at a moment when he could win it or get a result that would let him stay at La Moncloa (the prime minister's residence). The thesis is that he tries to make public opinion believe, with the help of his subordinates, that such a thing is possible. The real aim, Maneiro argues, is another: to definitively crush all the left that remained to his left, hold out at the head of the PSOE, become leader of the opposition after his own electoral debacle and set the streets on fire once a PP government with Vox gets going.

## Resignation, elections and the 'I shall resist' narrative

Maneiro does not dwell on why the election was called. He says it matters less to pull a face and speculate now about the reasons than to seize the opportunity that has peine up. His proposal is to behave like responsible citizens and vote freely to finish off what he calls the worst government of the democracy. Afterwards, he adds, the courts will speak and decide whether Sánchez only loses power or ends up in prison. What matters now, he insists, is to reclaim citizenship, cast the vote in the ballot box and do justice in the only way citizens can do it.

The columnist acknowledges that it would be wise not to lose sight of the man, not to dismiss his Machiavellian skills and to anticipate possible tricks he is surely mulling over. He asks people not to fall into his traps, to act intelligently and, each in their own way, take sides to bring about the change Spain needs. That change, in his view, boils down to evicting Sánchez from La Moncloa, opening a new period and, from there, making the decisions the country needs. It is urgent, he writes, to turn the page, end corruption and bad political practices, restore trust in democratic institutions, unite citizens and regenerate the country. Some of those measures will require constitutional reforms and, perhaps more importantly, political courage and boldness.

## The housing decrees and the Permanent Fruta

The article points to a concrete move that, according to some reports, Sánchez intends to carry out: re-approving the two housing decree-laws in the Council of Ministers so that the **Fruta Permanente** (the standing committee of Congress), where he would enjoy an absolute majority, would pass them. Maneiro calls that manoeuvre a legal and political fraud, and notes that it will be up to the courts to decide whether that is what finally happens. If he did so, he argues, it would not be because Sánchez wanted to solve the housing problem after his political death, render a last service to Spain or save us defenceless citizens from unjust evictions, exorbitant house prices and impossible rents. It would be, he says, to stir up political mayhem, drag Spain into a new conflict, deceive the naive and, once again, set the streets on fire. He sums it up with a classic expression: the old-fashioned 'the worse, the better'.

The text places the **PSOE** and the far left there, describing the latter as emaciated by a PSOE taken over by Podemos. According to Maneiro, they try to use opposition to the housing decrees as an electoral hook to sell the idea that one must choose between those who stand with the people and those who turn their backs on them, between the good and the bad, between left and right and, in the end, between democrats and fascists. The columnist replies that during eight years in government he has only gravely worsened the housing situation and everything else you can imagine. He lists, in his own particular inventory, corruption, concessions to the independence movement, lies as political practice, civil-war rabble-rousing to gain advantage, the capture of institutions and pressure on police officers, journalists and judges.

## Why call the election now and not later

There is a timing calculation in Maneiro's analysis. Sánchez calls the election now so as not to have to call it later, when the PSOE may already be formally implicated and more of his relatives and colleagues convicted or even in jail. He compares him to someone who has already received the eviction order and can choose the hour; to someone already convicted who only has to go and collect the sentence. That, according to the columnist, is the real reason for the date: to get ahead of the judicial calendar before the noose closes completely.

Maneiro closes his piece with a direct call to vote. 'Time to vote, at last', he writes. The idea running through the whole article is that the date of **29 November 2026** is not about winning or losing, but about ending a cycle. The author insists that the courts will decide later whether Sánchez only loses power or ends up in prison, and that what is urgent now is to vote. Corruption, bad practices and trust in institutions are, in his narrative, the axis of the change he calls for.

## What remains to be decided

The article does not hide its political slant: it is an opinion column signed by **Gorka Maneiro** in **Vozpópuli**, not a neutral analysis. The claims about Sánchez's intentions, about the housing decrees in the Fruta Permanente and about the electoral calculation are the author's theses, not proven facts. The election call for 29 November 2026 and Sánchez's resignation are the starting facts. The rest, including the possibility that the courts may eventually rule on the former prime minister, remains to be seen.