Loud and clear

Last weekend’s demonstrations in Madrid highlighted two of the issues that will prove crucial ahead of 2027’s general election (assuming that it doesn’t happen sooner). The first, on Saturday, saw tens of thousands of people parade to Plaza Moncloa, near the prime minister’s official residence, in protest at the corruption allegations surrounding Pedro Sánchez’s government; and in the second, held on Sunday, participants expressed their frustration at Spain’s housing crisis. Both events highlighted how untenable Sánchez’s leadership has become.

Saturday’s protesters walked through central Madrid behind a banner reading: “Corruption has a price. No more impunity. Resignation and elections now.” On Wednesday, in further vindication of their demand (not that any was necessary), the Guardia Civil raided the Socialists’ HQ, in connection with allegations that the party hired agents to “systematically obstruct any legal proceedings that could directly or indirectly impact the interest of the government.”

Calculating attendance at street protests is not an exact science; but the disparity between the two head-counts for Saturday’s makes one suspicious. The organisers - a citizens’ platform called Sociedad Civil Española, founded late last year - estimated that 120,000 people participated. But the central government’s representative guessed 40,000. That’s a difference of 80,000 - almost enough to fill Real Madrid’s Bernabéu stadium. Surely either the organisers exaggerated or Sánchez’s mole downplayed the size of the crowds. Let’s hypothesise that the actual turnout was halfway between the two guesses: 80,000 people.

You might think that that would be enough to make any prime minister sit up and listen. But Sánchez refused to comply with their call for his resignation (which was backed by PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo), saying “I cannot call elections for partisan interests, I have to call [them] for the general interest of the citizens.” Don’t 80,000 people represent the general interest of at least a large section of the electorate?

The target of frustration for the following day’s protesters was a housing crisis that has seen rental prices soar by 80 per cent over the past decade, exacerbated by a deficit of new homes estimated at 700,000 by the Bank of Spain. One banner read “We want neighbours, not tourists,” in reference to the now-familiar complaint that foreigners are pricing Spaniards out of property markets. Again, there was a notable difference in estimated attendance figures: the organisers said 100,000, while the authorities guessed around 20,000.

Sunday’s demonstration, regardless of its size, also highlighted Sánchez’s precarious position. A law to extend rental freezes failed to make it through parliament in April, no doubt causing many of the protest’s struggling young renters to attend. The message broadcast on the streets of Madrid last weekend was loud and clear: people are fed up with corruption and an ineffective minority government. They want change now, not in a year’s time.