¿Early elections? Junts' 'no' leaves Sánchez facing a defeat on housing and opens the door to the polls again.

As of October 1, 2026, the two new housing royal decree-laws approved by the Government are in the key phase of their ratification in the Congress, they have not yet been voted on, and their future is very uncertain following Junts' announcement that it will vote against them. The extraordinary Plenary session to decide whether to ratify or repeal them is scheduled for Friday, October 2, within the maximum period of 30 days from their approval by the Council of Ministers.

Which decrees are at stake

According to the Government's own notes, the Council of Ministers on September 29 approved two royal decree-laws on housing:

• A decree with urgent measures for the protection of the social function of housing and the expansion of affordable housing supply, which includes restrictions on speculative housing purchases by funds, reinforcement of the suspension of certain evictions, new regulation of seasonal rentals and rooms, property tax surcharges on tourist apartments, and tax deductions linked to rent and protected housing. Moncloa details it in the note “Urgent measures to promote and protect the right to housing.”
• A second decree focused on the automatic renewal of rental contracts for primary residences and strengthening tenant stability, referred to by unions such as UGT and CCOO in their joint statement on the “housing emergency” royal decrees (UGT and CCOO note).

Both texts have been sent to Congress for ratification, and the Ministry of Housing has confirmed that an urgent Plenary session has been requested for Friday. Various reports (for example, ConSalud) note that even sectoral meetings have been postponed to avoid coinciding with this special housing Plenary session.

Exact procedural status as of October 1

From a formal point of view, the situation of these decrees is as follows:

• They have been approved by the Council of Ministers and published in the Official State Gazette (the decree on social function and affordable housing supply was published on September 30, according to Moncloa).
• They are registered in Congress and pending debate on ratification or repeal in an extraordinary Plenary session.
• As of October 1, they are not yet recorded as ratified, repealed, or converted into bills. All this depends on the vote on Friday.
• Since they are royal decree-laws, Congress can only ratify or repeal them as a whole; they cannot be amended at this stage. If ratified, the Chamber may also decide that one of them continues its processing as a bill, thus opening an ordinary process with amendments and committee and Senate phases.

Politically, the balance of power is very tight. The press and social actors describe the ratification as “at risk” or “very compromised,” because Junts has announced a negative vote and demands the text be redone. Demócrata, for example, has been reporting how Junts has hardened its position on the housing and indefinite rental decrees, up to maintaining a declared “no” (analysis on the no to the rental decree).

What will happen depending on the vote

Pending that Plenary session, the scenarios are clear:

• If ratified, they will remain in force as currently drafted. Congress could decide, in the same session, that one or both decrees continue as a bill, allowing changes via amendments but without interrupting the validity of the measures.
• If rejected, the decrees will expire: they will cease to have effect, and the government would have to redesign its regulatory strategy, either with a new royal decree-law or a bill from scratch. They cannot be “tweaked” in Congress once repealed; a new procedure would have to be initiated in the Executive.

Context: recent precedents

This conflict follows other clashes in housing. In April, a crisis royal decree-law focused on rent and evictions was rejected in Congress, also with Junts voting against, forcing the Government to redesign its strategy. Additionally, the extension of the suspension of evictions on primary residences included in Royal Decree‑law 1/2024 remains in processing as a bill, now redirected to an ordinary legislative initiative, where amendments are being presented and negotiated.

With this background, Junts' announcement to block the new decrees places the parliamentary processing at its most delicate point: legally the texts are alive and pending ratification; politically, the risk of their expiration is very high and will shape the housing agenda in the coming months.

The President of the Government of Spain is, according to the 1978 Constitution, the central figure of the executive power and the main person responsible for the political direction of the country. His powers combine functions of initiative, coordination, representation, and accountability before the Cortes Generales, especially before the Congress of Deputies.

Constitutional position of the President of the Government

The Constitution establishes the president as head of the Government (not of the State, a function that corresponds to the King). This means that:

• He directs the action of the Government and coordinates the functions of the other members of the Council of Ministers.
• He is politically responsible before the Congress, which can demand accountability through a motion of censure or a vote of confidence.
• He acts as the main political interlocutor before the Cortes, other State institutions, and abroad.

Functions of political direction and initiative

One of the core powers is directing the country's internal and external policy. Among others:

• Set the major orientations of Government policy (economic, social, foreign, security, etc.) and ensure its coherence.
• Establish the legislative priorities of the Executive, promoting the presentation of bills before the Cortes and, when constitutional requirements are met, proposing to the King the approval of royal decree-laws.
• Direct defense policy, in coordination with the competent minister, within the framework set by the Cortes Generales.

Appointment and dismissal of ministers

The internal organization of the Government is structured around an essential power of the president:

• Proposes to the King the appointment and dismissal of vice presidents and ministers. Legally, the King signs the appointments and dismissals, but the political decision is the president's.
• He can reorganize the Government's structure (creation, suppression, or renaming of ministries) by royal decrees, within the existing legal framework.

This grants him broad scope to configure his team and adapt the governmental structure to his political priorities.

Relationship with the Cortes Generales

Although the Government as a whole is accountable to Parliament, the prominence falls on the president:

• He is invested by the Congress through a specific initial confidence procedure, proposed by the King.
• He can raise a vote of confidence before the Congress to reinforce or verify his parliamentary support regarding his program or a general policy statement.
• He must answer for his political action in control sessions, appearances, and parliamentary debates.
• He personally suffers the effects of a possible motion of censure: if it passes, the president ceases and the alternative candidate is invested.

This centrality explains that, in practice, Government stability is identified with the personal stability of the president.

Power to dissolve the Cortes

A particularly relevant power is the ability to propose to the King the dissolution of the Congress, the Senate, or the Cortes Generales as a whole, which entails calling general elections. This power:

• Is discretionary but must be exercised within constitutional limits (for example, it is not possible during the processing of a motion of censure nor before one year has passed since a previous dissolution for the same reason).
• Functions as a political arbitration instrument when the relationship between Government and Parliament is blocked.

Relations with the King and institutional representation

The President of the Government is also the King's main political advisor. Among his functions:

• He intervenes decisively in acts where the King must appoint or dismiss high officials (Government members, some heads of constitutional bodies), since these acts are carried out at the proposal of the president or the Government.
• He countersigns the King's acts in governmental matters, assuming political responsibility for them.
• He exercises the ordinary representation of the State internationally regarding the Government, without prejudice to the symbolic and representative role of the King as head of State.

Responsibility and limits

Despite his very broad powers, the president is subject to clear limits:

• He must always respect the Constitution and the rest of the legal system, as well as the territorial distribution of powers between the State and autonomous communities.
• He is criminally responsible for crimes he may commit in the exercise of his functions, with a specific procedural regime, and politically responsible before the Congress.
• He does not hold absolute powers: his acts are inserted in a system of mutual checks among Government, Cortes, judiciary, and other constitutional institutions.

Overall, the figure of the President of the Government concentrates the political direction of the Executive, but always framed within a parliamentary democracy in which the confidence of the majority of Congress is the ultimate basis of his legitimacy and powers.

In Spain, the possibility of calling early general elections is articulated through the dissolution of the Cortes Generales, mainly regulated in the Spanish Constitution and the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG). Although formally the King dissolves by royal decree, the political initiative corresponds to the President of the Government, who must meet a series of material, temporal, and formal requirements.

1. Constitutional basis of early dissolution

The core is in Article 115 of the Constitution:

• Initiative: the President of the Government, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers and under his exclusive responsibility, may propose the dissolution of the Congress, the Senate, or both Chambers (the Cortes Generales).
• Formal decision: the dissolution is materialized by a Royal Decree of the King, which includes the President's proposal. That dissolution decree includes the call for elections, setting the voting date.

2. Material limits: when dissolution cannot be proposed

The Constitution imposes several important restrictions:

• Motion of censure in process: Article 115 itself states that a dissolution proposal cannot be presented when a motion of censure is underway in Congress. This is a safeguard to prevent the President from neutralizing a parliamentary initiative aimed precisely at demanding political responsibility from the Government.
• Exceptional states: Article 116 provides that during states of alarm, exception, and siege, the Cortes maintain a reinforced role. In particular, when these states are declared, the Congress cannot be sidelined: if dissolved, it is considered automatically convened. In practice, this acts as a strong political and legal limit to discretionary dissolution during a state of exception or siege.
• President and Government in caretaker status: although the Constitution does not expressly say so in a single article, it is derived from the set of provisions on Government cessation (art. 101) and the system's logic that a caretaker Government should not use the power to dissolve the Cortes. The power is conceived for a President with full parliamentary confidence, not for an already ceased Executive.

3. Temporal limits to early dissolution

Article 115.3 of the Constitution establishes a clear temporal limit: a new dissolution cannot be agreed upon before one year has passed since the previous one, when that dissolution was adopted at the President's initiative (i.e., not in the case of automatic dissolution for lack of investiture under Article 99.5).

Additionally, the dissolution power must be exercised within the ordinary legislative period: when the natural end of the four years approaches, the difference between an “early” dissolution and the expiration of the mandate becomes purely practical, but legally the framework is the same.

4. Formal requirements and electoral deadlines (LOREG)

The LOREG (Organic Law 5/1985) completes the constitutional framework:

• Article 42 provides that the call for elections to the Congress, Senate, or both Chambers is made by Royal Decree.
• Except for the case of Article 99.5 of the Constitution, the decree is issued at the proposal of the President of the Government, under his exclusive responsibility and after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, with the President's countersignature.
• In the case of early dissolution, the same Royal Decree must contain both the dissolution and the call for new elections.
• As a general rule, the electoral process lasts 54 days from the call to the vote (art. 68.6 CE and development in LOREG). For the exceptional case of dissolution due to lack of investiture (art. 99.5 CE), a specific reform (Organic Law 2/2016) shortens this period to 47 days, but this does not affect the discretionary dissolution proposed by the President.

5. Summary

In summary, for the President of the Government to trigger early elections, he must: have a Government not merely in caretaker status; ensure the Council of Ministers deliberates the proposal; formulate it under his exclusive responsibility; respect the limits (not do so with a motion of censure underway, not repeat a dissolution within one year of a previous one adopted on his initiative, and consider the framework of exceptional states); and finally obtain the King's signature on the Royal Decree dissolving the Chambers and calling elections, respecting the deadlines set by the Constitution and LOREG.