The first general strike in 14 years for housing begins with cuts and some incidents and in the middle of the pre-campaign: "The police are acting excessively"

Spain is experiencing the first hours of the general strike, the first that the country has faced in 14 years and which has been promoted by CCOO, UGT, the Tenants' Unions and other organizations under the motto Salaries, housing, prices. "This is a bosses' picket!" or "Long live the struggle of the working class!" These are some of the phrases that the protesters shouted this morning at the doors of the garages of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) in Fuencarral (Madrid) as the minimum service buses passed, between flags and flashlights in the darkness.

This is one of the first points where protesters have gathered in the capital, where there have been cuts and some incidents that have ended in complaints about police action. In fact, CCOO and UGT have placed the monitoring of the general strike in a range of between 41% of Extremadura or Castilla-La Mancha and 75% of communities such as Andalusia and Aragón, according to the first data collected around seven in the morning, corresponding to the close of the night shift and the beginning of the morning shift. "We are trying to raise awareness among our colleagues. We believe that the police are acting excessively, charging and using pepper spray," denounced Lucho Palazzo, general secretary of FSC-CCOO at street level in Fuencarral; where he also recalled that to have better salaries, access housing and regulate prices "you have to occupy public spaces and go out into the streets."

This tension in the Madrid garages has been repeated in other strategic supply points. In Mercamadrid, a concentration has led to charges by the National Police and the use of pepper spray. The intervention has left at least 13 people treated for bruises and eye irritation and has resulted in the arrest of a worker after the launch of a fence. Likewise, the incidents and police charges have spread to the Carabanchel garages and the Malagueña Transport Company, which has left minor injuries among the information pickets.

So far, in the transport infrastructure, the pickets have blocked access to the Barcelona Sants station and have cut off more than thirty roads in Catalonia, including the AP-7, the A-2 and the Ronda Litoral. Meanwhile, in Madrid, the Police have intervened to clear blocks on the M-30, the A-6 and the A-42 at the height of rush hour.

In the factories and ports the strike is felt more strongly. Production is almost stopped at automobile plants such as Seat in Barcelona and Volkswagen in Navarra, and activity in the ports of Valencia and Algeciras is practically frozen. As a reflection of this industrial stoppage, electricity consumption has dropped almost 10% early this morning. However, in the rest of the cities the impact is different thanks to teleworking. Unlike what happened in previous strikes, today the fact that there are fewer buses or trains does not completely paralyze the offices, because many employees are working from home. For this reason, BBVA Research analysts estimate that the economic cost will be contained, at around 1.7 billion euros.

There are two main reasons behind the strikes: the rental crisis and the rise in the cost of living. Currently, salaries agreed by agreement rise by 3%, while inflation reaches 4.9%, making it difficult for families across the country to make ends meet. Meanwhile, of the almost 10 million homes projected in urban plans, 6.9 million are in limbo pending execution; which increases the deficit of the residential stock and puts upward pressure on prices and complicates the economy of the Spanish people.