From Sol to Vistalegre camping. Does history repeat itself? A month and a half ago, the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid sparked the social protest against housing. The Tenants' Union led the organization of the demonstrations against the housing crisis and led the assembly of a new camp at kilometer zero of the capital. The Government urgently approved two decree-laws with rental measures. Congress knocked them down. Pedro Sánchez announced an early election for November 29. The UGT and CCOO unions gave in to pressure to call a general strike on November 11. And when all that was tied up, the Tenants' Union concluded its mission and abandoned the tents, with its sights set on November 15. That day, the organization is preparing "a great political, union and cultural meeting" at the Vistalegre Palace in Madrid with figures from the world of culture such as Amaral, Biznaga, Lia Kali, Rozalén, Rodrigo Cuevas, Inés Hernand, Marc Biarnés or Miguel Maldonado, among others. The act, reminiscent of the most recent political history of Spain (the 15M, Podemos...), is a blow to the table before the traditional unions and a sign that the organization wants to have its own voice in the new sociopolitical board of the country. What it wants to be and what it can be are the big questions.
Its origins date back to the neighborhood movement in Madrid and Barcelona in 2017 and find fertile ground in the escalation of rental prices and the housing fever that was unleashed as a result of the coronavirus. At the same time that rents and sales reached historic levels, tenant evictions also increased and the difficulties of many tenants in maintaining affordable contracts with their landlords also increased. Their action at street level - Blackstone, rent strike, demonstrations, rentiers... - is taking shape while their political influence grows in the shadows.
With the presence of Podemos in the Government of Pedro Sánchez, in its first stage in La Moncloa, many attribute to the Tenants' Union and its leaders at that time a direct ascendancy over the formation led by Pablo Iglesias at that time. Some of the proposals that the purple formation established in those years as a sine qua non condition to maintain its support for the Executive take root directly in the organization, among them, the rent cap included in the Housing Law. To know the demands that Iglesias and his team asked of the then minister responsible for housing policy, José Luis Ábalos, it was enough to follow the public demands of the Union. An invisible thread united both parts and that thread has remained until now. Not in vain, a few weeks ago the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, linked the party's response to the so-called Maricarmen decrees to the assessment made of them by the Confederation of the Tenants' Union. Finally, the Union gave its support to the rules and the four purple deputies changed no for yes in the Congress vote.
In its evolution, the union organization has gone from being a crutch for the Government's partners - first Podemos and then Sumar - to becoming an actor with its own voice and entity that now sets the pace for those same partners. The event planned in Vistalegre is announced to "give continuity to the mobilizations for the right to housing and reclaim the union organization as a tool to transform the living conditions of the social majority", but it presents a transformational aspect and could be the key to answer two questions about its future: what does the Tenants Union want to be when it grows up and how is it going to capitalize on the entire social movement that emerged in protest of the housing crisis?
"From the Tenants' Union we have been working for years to build a strong organization, with its own resources and presence in the neighborhoods, that is capable of sustaining the struggles beyond large demonstrations, because it is not just about filling the streets. We want all that force to become an organization and allow us to win rights," they respond to questions from this medium. According to data shared by the Union with EL MUNDO, in Madrid they have 6,500 members. "We have tripled membership during 2026 and we have doubled it since the mobilizations for the eviction of Maricarmen began," they comment. At the state level there are 15,000 members.
A political party?
In 2014, Vistalegre hosted the launch of Podemos after 15M, its results in the European elections and the success of Yes, we can. Regarding whether history can repeat itself now with the Union, the sources consulted for this article point out that although there are parallels with 15M and what emerged from it, the moment and context are very different.
The same voices do not rule out any option, but they grant little chance that the Union now aspires to become a political party and the Union directly rules it out. "Our bet is not to create a political party, but to continue building a grassroots, autonomous and increasingly larger union. We are not building an electoral candidacy. We are building an organization that is increasingly stronger and capable of uniting the fight for housing with other social struggles," they respond to this newspaper.
And it is there, on the street, where it has been showing muscle in recent months, leading the mobilizations for housing and marking the way for the large traditional unions.
The tenant organization has dragged UGT and CCOO towards calling a general strike for this week that, otherwise, most likely would not have occurred. The concurrence of both majority unions was necessary to make said call legal, but from then on, it is the Confederation of Tenants that is leading the proposal and setting the agenda. This opens the door to the other path for the future that is on the table and that would involve becoming a reference union organization that rivals historical formations.
"Tenants organize to defend their interests in other European countries where renting is more prevalent and where there are usually clear interlocutors with large housing portfolios. In Spain, the birth of the Tenants' Union is a product of the current situation in which tenants feel that their contracts are in danger. As a social mobilization it makes perfect sense, but as a union two questions arise: how to interact and with whom, on the one hand, and who is left out of representation, on the other", explains Jorge Galindo, sociologist, professor and deputy director of EsadeEcPol, think tank of the Esade school, and author of Three Millions of Homes (Debate, 2025). "With whom do they negotiate or complain about rental conditions in a country where property is so fragmented? Without a clear interlocutor, social mobilization and appealing to political parties remains," he adds.
