Massive protests over housing crisis sweep Spain

Mass protests due to the housing crisis are taking place on Saturday in dozens of cities in Spain; in Madrid alone, according to official data, about 70 thousand people took to the streets, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

The wave of protests began after the eviction in September of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid, who had lived in the same apartment for decades. Her case became one of the symbols of the protest movement, after which a tent camp appeared, and similar actions spread to other cities in Spain.

The new protests took place the day after the lower house of parliament rejected two government regulations containing measures in the housing sector.

In Madrid, demonstrators moved in four columns from different areas of the city towards Plaza Cibeles. At the head of the procession they carried a banner with the inscription “Towards a general strike.” According to the government office in Madrid, about 70 thousand people took part in the action, while the tenants' union that organized the action (Sindicato de Inquilinas) announced 500 thousand participants.

The protesters demand, in particular, a reduction in rental costs, the introduction of open-ended lease agreements and the seizure of housing from the so-called vulture funds. The representative of the tenants' union, Valeria Raku, said that the movement is already negotiating with labor unions about holding a general strike and expects to announce it soon.

Representatives of the tenants' union told RIA Novosti that protests are taking place in about 50 other cities across the country. In Palma, Mallorca, about two thousand people demonstrated despite warnings of heavy rain.

In Valencia, the action ended in clashes near the Palace of Arts, where a forum of real estate investors was taking place. In Barcelona, ​​a demonstration planned for Saturday was postponed to Monday due to unfavorable weather conditions.