Overview
- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has dissolved parliament after his emergency housing decrees failed to secure a majority in the legislature and has called snap national elections.
- The Sánchez government is seeking to use the standing deputation, a continuing parliamentary committee, to enact at least one housing measure despite the dissolution while large protest camps and nationwide demonstrations press the issue.
- In Sachsen‑Anhalt Tobias Rausch of the AfD was elected Landtag president on Tuesday with 48 votes, marking the first time an AfD politician has held the presidency of a German state parliament.
- Rausch received four more votes than the AfD and its declared ally BSW hold together, a result that points to unexplained extra votes or abstentions and exposes deep divisions and accountability questions inside the CDU because the ballot was secret.
- Both episodes underline how street pressure, small kingmaker parties and procedural tactics are reshaping immediate political arithmetic and set two near‑term tests: a December vote on the state minister‑president in Sachsen‑Anhalt and a Spanish national election expected late this year.