Credit, Reuters
A general strike may not decide an election, but it can influence the issues that dominate the electoral campaign, especially when it occurs on the eve of the vote.
This is what is currently happening in Spain, where the country's two largest unions called for this Wednesday (11/11) the first major general strike in 14 years. The main demands are related to housing and wages, which do not keep up with rising housing costs.
Several factors make this strike unusual.
The first factor is the chosen moment. The strike takes place two days before the start of the electoral campaign and just 18 days before the general elections, scheduled for November 29th.
This makes the mobilization an inevitably political-electoral event, according to experts. Everything that happens during the strike will be analyzed in light of the electoral dispute.
The second factor is the government's position. Although general strikes are normally directed against those in power, the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), supports the mobilization.
Sánchez states that the strike is carried out "in defense of rights", and not against anyone.
However, people close to the president went so far as to say that the protest was "against the opposition", that is, against parties that have been outside the central government since 2018. And this is also unusual.
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The president of the conservative Partido Popular (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, stated that, if this "is a strike against the opposition", it is "an absurdity that does not exist in any country in the European Union".
In a recent interview, Sánchez responded by stating that the "absurdity is to question the right of male and female workers to strike."
The third factor is the main claim. Historically, general strikes in Spain have been called mainly against labor reforms or public spending cuts.
This is the first time that housing has been the central theme of a general strike.
Credit, Getty Images
"For a whole day, the public debate will revolve around rents and salaries, which are the biggest concern for Spaniards," Eduardo Bayón, political scientist and political communications consultant, told BBC News Mundo, the BBC's Spanish-language service.
Bayón recalls that there is no precedent for a strike like this in Spain.
"None of the previous ones were called during the pre-election campaign, and all were directed against the government of the time: the one in 1988, against Felipe González; the one in 2002, against the decree of José María Aznar; and the one in 2010, against the cuts by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero."
Unions expect mass participation, while employers have called for the strike to be called off.
Below are three points to understand this general strike, which organizers hope will paralyze Spain.
1. The housing crisis
A survey carried out in June revealed that 87% of Spaniards are concerned about the housing issue and 76% believe that the State should intervene in the real estate market "as much as necessary".
Buying a house or, failing that option, renting one has become increasingly difficult in Spain, despite the good performance of the country's economy. In 2026, the Spanish economy continued to grow more than that of the main powers in the euro zone, with an expansion of 0.7% between April and June.
"There are no official statistics on rental prices. Therefore, data published by real estate advertising websites is usually used. According to the best-known of them, Idealista, rents have risen 44% since 2021, while the average salary has increased 22% in the same period", explains María Jesús Fernández Sánchez, senior economist at the Funcas analysis center.
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This means that the average rent for an 80 m² apartment would represent around 50% of the average gross salary. In large cities, such as Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza, this percentage can be even higher.
According to recommendations from the Bank of Spain, a family should not commit more than 30% to 35% of their net monthly income to paying rent or mortgage payments.
The situation of young people is another problem.
Among Spanish people aged 26 to 34 who still live with their parents, 47.3% say that the main reason for not leaving home is the lack of financial conditions to buy or rent a property, due to high prices. The data was released in April by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
"The strike offers progressive voters a common cause, despite their differences. Furthermore, it mobilizes young voters and those in a precarious economic situation, who are the most undecided between voting or abstaining and those most affected by the housing crisis. Their dissatisfaction stops being something diffuse and starts to have identifiable culprits", says Bayón, a political scientist.
2. The two realities of the Spanish economy
Although the Spanish economy is in good shape, many citizens feel that this improvement is not reaching their pockets.
Corporate profits are at record levels, but inflation remains high — almost 5% in October — and wages are not keeping up with rising prices.
For Xulio Ferreiro Baamonde, professor of Procedural Law and director of the Faculty of Law at the University of A Coruña, in Spain, the call for strike is not just due to the difficulty in accessing housing. The problem is broader.
"This evident housing crisis is a consequence of the progressive loss of workers' purchasing power, which affects access to housing, the purchase of food and, in general, the living conditions of the majority of the population", says Baamonde.
"The transfer of income from the popular classes to the richest is causing evident social tensions, which will continue in the future", he adds.
But how can we explain that Spain's Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the sum of all goods and services produced in the country) is growing so much, while the majority of the population does not feel the benefits of this advance?
"The GDP is growing a lot, but so is the population. The economy produces more because there are more people working, not because each worker is earning more", explains Fernández Sánchez, economist at Funcas.
“GDP per capita, which is the indicator related to the population’s average standard of living, has grown half as much as GDP, around 5% since 2019,” notes Sánchez.
3. Political reasons
In the weeks before Spain's prime minister announced early elections, the eviction of 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, "rekindled old dissatisfaction with high property prices and rents in Spain's main cities", says Alana Moceri, international relations analyst, writer and professor at the IE School of Global and Public Affairs, in Spain.
"While protesters set up camps in Puerta del Sol square, in Madrid, Sánchez's government coalition rushed to prepare two bills aimed at alleviating the situation of tenants and curbing the operations of investment funds known as 'vulture funds' [speculative funds], identified as the main responsible for the increase in property prices", explains Moceri in a document sent to the press.
However, the right-wing parties that oppose the government, Partido Popular (PP) and Vox, voted against the proposals. Junts, a small independence party that supported Sánchez's minority government remaining in power after the 2023 elections, also voted against.
"This left Sánchez's government, which was already weakened, in an unsustainable situation, making the anticipation of the elections, announced a few days later, almost inevitable," says Moceri.
This is why it is said that the strike is not against the government.
"The motto is 'Wages, housing and prices', and the mobilization arose from the tenants' movement after the PP, Vox and Junts parties overturned the housing decrees in Congress", explains Bayón, a political scientist.
But Javier Díaz-Giménez, professor of economics at IESE Business School, disagrees with this interpretation.
"It is clear that this is a strike against the government, which has done nothing in eight years to improve or solve the housing problem. Spain was planned for 40 million inhabitants, but we are 50 million", says Díaz-Giménez.
He refers to data from the Bank of Spain that indicates a deficit of around 750,000 homes in the country. The forecast is that this shortage will increase and exceed 1 million properties in 2028.
"The unions joined because, after a decade, they are losing relevance and because housing is a good social cause to which they can join", assesses Díaz-Giménez.
Housing is an important issue in many countries and affects citizens of different political views.
The strike could help mobilize disillusioned left-wing voters who would otherwise fail to vote in the general election.
Therefore, according to analysts, the mobilization represents a window of opportunity for Sánchez's socialists, who seek to reduce the right's advantage in electoral polls.
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