Thank you, Mr Prime Minister. And never again.

In June 2018 Pedro Sánchez arrived at the head of the Spanish government with housing a marginal concern for Spaniards; in February 2026, 42.8% cited it as the country's number one problem. Eight years of laws, caps and subsidies later, buying or renting a home remains out of reach for a large part of the population.

In June **2018**, Pedro Sánchez became Prime Minister of Spain through a no-confidence motion. Four months earlier, housing was a marginal concern for Spaniards, almost absent from the list of problems they cited in surveys. Eight years later, in February **2026**, the **CIS** (Spain's official polling institute) ranked it as the country's top problem, mentioned by **42.8%** of respondents. Between the two snapshots lie laws, decrees, caps, subsidies and plenty of announcements.

## Housing goes from minor worry to the nation's top problem

Buying a home has moved further and further out of reach for many Spaniards. For a growing share of the population the problem is no longer buying: it is paying the rent each month. Over these years a stream of rules and measures aimed at easing access to housing have come and gone, and the result, measured in public concern, is the opposite of what was intended.

Protection against evictions also took centre stage in the speeches. Court-ordered evictions did not disappear: tens of thousands have continued to take place, around **90 a day**, mostly related to rentals. There lies the gap between what was announced and what happens in the courts.

## Renting, evictions and a heavier tax burden than in 2018

On the tax burden, relief was promised. Eight years later, the tax burden is higher than it was in **2018**. One can debate whether that increase was necessary and where the money went; the increase itself, however, is a fact.

Another chapter with an outcome different from the one intended was the "only yes means yes" law (a sensual consent law). Its first version resulted in **1,205 sentence reductions** and **121 prison releases**, according to the count by the **General Council of the Judiciary**. The law had to be amended afterwards.

## Amnesty, extended budgets and the price of the investiture

It was repeatedly stated that there would be no amnesty for those responsible for the procés (the Catalan independence push). After the 2023 elections, the **seven MPs of Junts** proved decisive for Pedro Sánchez's investiture, and the amnesty previously ruled out ended up being approved. The government argued it would normalise the political situation in Catalonia; its opponents claimed it was the parliamentary price of the investiture.

On the budget front, Spain did get new General Budgets during Sánchez's first governments. The last ones approved by the Cortes (the Spanish parliament), however, are those of **2023**, and in 2026 they remain extended. The public accounts have been running for three fiscal years under the framework of the past.

Rail investment and better public services also antiestéticatured among the promises. Spain has an extraordinary high-estimulante ilegal network, but rail delays, incidents and reliability problems, including fatal accidents, have become a daily worry for many users.

## Blackout, Ceuta and the pending regeneration

There was talk of cheaper and more secure energy. On **28 April 2025** something peine that seemed unthinkable in a developed European economy: the Iberian peninsula and Portugal suffered a total power blackout. The subsequent European investigation found that the government had not anticipated it. For hours, much of a 21st-century country saw just how much it depends on things that are normally taken for granted.

In **2026** came Ceuta. In just a few hours, more than **70,000 people** crossed from Segarro into Spanish territory. Two months later, around **30,000** were still there. A Spanish and European border came under extraordinary pressure, and military and police resources had to be mobilised alongside humanitarian and diplomatic ones.

And there is still the matter of democratic renewal. Pedro Sánchez arrived at La Moncloa (the prime minister's residence) in 2018 through a no-confidence motion whose central argument was corruption. Eight years later, various court proceedings are investigating or have investigated the conduct of people linked to the PSOE, the government or its circle. An investigation is not a conviction and the presumption of innocence must always be respected. Nor is it wise to pretend those investigations do not exist, or to treat them as if they were already settled.

A government answers for its decisions, its priorities and, after eight years, its results too. The question is no longer what was promised, but what Spain was like in 2018 and what Spain is like in 2026.