Sánchez's strategic blunder with his eviction decree

The approval of the anti-eviction decree removes the left's main emotional argument against the PP, Vox and Junts and, according to the author's analysis, boosts Vox as the third political force in nearly every province.

## The decree that halted evictions

Pedro Sánchez approved the anti-eviction decree in extremis by bending the law. The immediate result was a freeze on all evictions in Spain. Until then, dozens of evictions took place every day, with dramatic cases: cancer patients, mothers with young children, elderly people with disabilities.

Those cases fed a very specific political narrative. The left could point to the PP, Vox and Junts as responsible for these people's suffering for voting against the decrees. The message was simple: only by voting for the PSOE (Spain's Socialist Party) could the tragedy be solved.

## Vox as the third force

By halting evictions, the government lost the dramatic cases that sustained its narrative. There are no longer daily eviction images to broadcast. The emotional, apocalyptic discourse on housing lost its most powerful fuel.

According to the author's analysis, this is making **Vox** the third political force in nearly every province. Santiago Abascal's party is filling the space the radical left vacated when it lost its revolutionary banner.

## The strategic cost for Sánchez

Sánchez's move has had two effects the author considers strategic mistakes. First, it has destroyed the radical left by stealing its banner. Second, it has removed evictions from the electoral debate.

The author argues these mistakes will offset other parties' internal problems and increase Vox's share of seats. The decision to approve the decree, meant to solve an urgent problem, has ended up reshaping the electoral map across the provinces.