Junts vote triggers Spanish snap election, echoes 1979 SNP fallout
Spain’s socialist government called a snap election after Junts per Catalunya rejected two housing reforms, a move likened to the SNP’s 1979 vote that toppled James Callaghan.
Spain’s socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez announced a snap general election on 29 November after Junts per Catalunya voted against two key housing reforms, a decision that has drawn parallels with the 1979 vote that toppled James Callaghan’s Labour government.
The two bills – one extending protections for vulnerable tenants and banning vulture funds from buying property, the other allowing automatic renewal of rental contracts without rent hikes – were passed by the lower house with the backing of four left‑wing nationalist parties.
Junts, the centre‑right Catalan party led by exiled former president Carles Puigdemont, opposed both measures, arguing they would not solve the housing crisis and would unfairly penalise small landlords, a core part of its electoral base.
“Socialism has led society into an economic, social, and political abyss,” wrote Junts MP Miriam Nogueras in an article defending the party’s stance.
The rejection came amid a highly charged atmosphere following the eviction of 87‑year‑old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid flat she had occupied for seven decades. The eviction, which saw her rent rise from €500 to €2 650 a month after an investment firm bought the building, sparked mass protests before being overturned.
Abascal’s death last month has kept the issue in the public eye, with many citing her case as a catalyst for the housing reforms now at the centre of the parliamentary debate.
Sanchez’s minority government has relied on the support of six nationalist parties from Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and Valencia since the 2023 election, securing concessions such as a €5 billion boost to the Catalan budget and an amnesty law for those involved in the 2017 independence referendum.
For the first time, members of the Spanish Congress can deliver speeches in Catalan, Basque and Galician, and the government is pushing for these languages to gain official EU status.
Junts’ decision to side with the opposition has been linked to the rise of the far‑right Aliança Catalana, a party that has drawn support from disillusioned voters who feel mainstream independence parties have failed to deliver.
A poll published by La Vanguardia on Sunday suggested Junts could lose more than half of its 35 seats in the Catalan parliament if an election were called now, with Aliança’s representation projected to surge from three to thirty seats.
Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau warned that when Puigdemont finally returns from exile “he will have problems walking the streets of Catalonia.”
Puigdemont was cleared to re‑enter Catalonia on Tuesday, but Catalan media report he may postpone his return until after the national vote to avoid being caught up in the housing scandal.
The move echoes the 1979 episode when the Scottish National Party voted against James Callaghan’s government, a decision that cost the SNP nine of its eleven seats and paved the way for Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative administration.
Junts’ predecessor, Convergència i Unió, famously acted as a kingmaker in the mid‑1990s, toppling a socialist government to usher in a conservative one.
Analysts note that by prioritising conservatism over its constitutional aims, Junts may be courting property owners rather than the pro‑independence electorate that once formed its backbone.
Data from the Diari Ara newspaper indicates the party’s stance could alienate a substantial portion of its base, many of whom still view independence as a non‑negotiable goal.
The only viable alternative government in Madrid would be a coalition of the centre‑right Partido Popular and the far‑right Vox, a party openly hostile to Catalan autonomy and keen to roll back devolution.
Vox has described the upcoming election as its “big chance to reshape Spain,” positioning itself as a threat to the regional powers that Junts has traditionally defended.
As the election draws near, Junts faces the prospect of being remembered as the midwife to a government even further to the right than the one the SNP was blamed for delivering in 1979.
The legacy of Maricarmen Abascal’s fight may yet influence the outcome, as public anger over housing injustice continues to fuel demand for change.