The image of an 87-year-old woman being evicted, on a stretcher, from the Madrid apartment where she had lived for 70 years was the spark that led Pedro Sánchez to call a snap general election.
Known in Spain simply as Maricarmen, she had lived in the same apartment for more than seven decades and was evicted after it was sold to a private investment company. She died in a hospital in Madrid two weeks later.
Before that, against a backdrop of street protests over the ongoing housing crisis, the Spanish prime minister had put a series of housing measures to parliament only to see them defeated.
Since the last election in 2023 where he scraped into power with the support of Catalan and Basque nationalists, the parliamentary arithmetic for the government has always been fragile.
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Sánchez leads the most prominent left-wing government among the 27 EU members. He is one of the more familiar European leaders but his polls at home show dissatisfaction, notably on what is seen to be his permissive attitude to immigration.
Calling an election for November 29th gives him some control but is it a gamble too far for the Spanish leader?
Irish Times contributor Guy Hedgecoe reports from Spain.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
