Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made a nod this Sunday to those struggling to access housing and announced that he will require 53,000 tourist apartments to be converted into long-term rentals. He will do so, he announced at an election rally in Malaga, using the Housing Law and the single rental registry it provides.

Sánchez explained that, after analyzing the data received, irregularities were found in these 53,000 registrations, which he will cancel. 8,000 of them are in Málaga, one of the cities with the most strained real estate market. In Andalusia, 16,740 tourist homes will be forcibly revoked.

This is a clearly interventionist measure that can be interpreted as an attempt to compete directly with the parties further to the left, particularly Podemos, which was its partner and is now one of the main headaches for the coalition government of the PSOE and Sumar and which has marked the veto of Israel as one of its red lines for negotiating its support for the 2026 budget.

Along these same lines, the Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has been emphatic in stating that the government is committed to interventionism, beyond measures against tourist accommodation."Of course we are going to intervene in the price of rent," she stated.

Sánchez and Montero were the protagonists of the rally this Sunday with which the PSOE kicked off the election pre-campaign in Andalusia, which has to go to the polls, at the latest, next June.

At a rally held at the University of Malaga's Sports Pavilion, the political and family birthplace of Juanma Moreno, Sánchez wanted to give a boost to the candidacy of his number two, a personal gamble whose success will largely determine his own chances of remaining in La Moncloa.

But the Socialist leader's Podemos-ization hasn't been limited to housing. Gaza was prominent at the Socialist event, and the president's references to the"barbarism" directed at the Palestinian people were constant. This time, he went a step further, referring to the sometimes violent protests against Israel's participation, which have seriously jeopardized the holding of the Vuelta a España.

Sánchez has justified these protests and publicly expressed his admiration for those involved. After showing his respect for the athletes, of course. Podemos had explicitly called for a boycott of the competition.

"Spain shines as an example in the world," he said, not only in relation to the international position on Palestine, but also to the economic situation and the evolution of employment in the country.

Meanwhile, the president countered, the opposition is stuck in"insults." He criticized Alberto Núñez Feijóo's PP for voting against the reduction in working hours this week and recalled that they did the same with regard to the pension revaluation, the increase in the minimum wage, and the labor reform.

The Popular Party, the president has emphasized, is"caming in" with the far right - "they are the same," he insisted - and has even said that Feijóo is "a bad copy of Santiago Abascal."

Juanma Moreno,"very right-wing"

Focusing on Andalusia, he also attacked the Andalusian president and leader of the PP in the community, Montero's rival, whom he said was"very right-wing" and whom he saw as "unenthusiastic, without proposals."

For his part, Montero, as he has been doing in recent months, called on his supporters to unite and demanded unity and conviction, that the Andalusian PSOE be"united" and that they "believe" that a victory in the regional elections against the PP is possible. A victory that, he added, is"a source of hope."

The Andalusian candidate defended the central government's policies in which she herself, as vice president and finance minister, plays an active role. She was particularly forceful in controversies such as the debt forgiveness agreed with the Catalan separatists of ERC, which the Andalusian government rejects."What family is told that they are going to be forgiven 19 billion euros and says no, that it's a trap?" asked Montero, insisting that other initiatives such as labor reform or increases in the Interprofessional Minimum Wage have benefited Andalusia like few other communities."The government has an Andalusian accent," she pointed out.

When attacking Moreno and his management since coming to power after the 2018 elections, the leader of Andalusian socialism has raised the flag of defending public health, a"pride" built by socialist governments, she said, and which the PP has seriously endangered in her opinion.

"The PP wants healthcare for the poor, a charity," Montero criticized, promising that Andalusian public healthcare"will once again be at the forefront."

The privatization of public services, according to his theory, has also reached Andalusian education and the PP has prioritized, he said, private education, especially with regard to universities.

Healthcare, education, long-term care... and housing. Access to housing is another priority, and Montero has announced that they will be addressing housing prices."Of course we're going to address it," he said.

In short, Montero has come to say that all the progress that Andalusia has achieved in recent years has been possible thanks to the Government of Pedro Sánchez and despite Juanma Moreno.

The Prime Minister and his deputy formally launched the pre-campaign this Sunday in Malaga for the regional elections that could be held in Andalusia starting in March. These elections, along with the regional elections in Castile and León, mark the start of a long calendar in which even general elections are not ruled out.

At the sports hall of the University of Malaga (UMA), the socialists have gathered just over 4,000 members who arrived by bus from different parts of Andalusia in a demonstration that the party in Andalusia, the most important federation with 40,000 members, is already in electoral mode.

The Socialists, and Montero in particular, have a lot at stake in the Andalusian elections. Not only because of Sánchez's personal gamble of appointing the Vice President and Minister of Finance as Secretary General and candidate for the Regional Government, but also because of the future of the PSOE leader himself. Whether they have a chance of remaining in La Moncloa once elections are called will largely depend on what happens in Andalusia, and on the support and mobilization they achieve. The region contributes 61 deputies in Congress, and the Socialists, amid the wear and tear from corruption, concessions to the separatists, and the weakness of the parties to their left, need every last vote.

For the moment, the polls paint a more than complicated picture for the socialist candidacy, to the point that Montero, according to estimates from the so-called Andalusian CIS, the Barometer of the Andalusian Studies Centre, could even worsen the already poor results achieved by her predecessor, Juan Espadas, in the 2022 elections.

Sánchez and Montero traveled to Málaga hand in hand just two days after Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Juanma Moreno celebrated their pre-election debut with fried eggs and olive oil in Alhaurín el Grande, just over 23 kilometers away. The PP leader used Andalusia as an example of what his party intends to do in Spain and as a demonstration that it is possible to reverse socialist policies without cutting rights or services and for it to be successful.