Spain: massive demonstrations against the housing crisis

Anger invaded the streets of many Spanish cities this Saturday, directed against the government of Pedro Sanchez. In Madrid, where a camp has brought together around a hundred activists for a week in an ultra-touristy square, several processions, marching behind a large banner “Towards the general strike”, converged on another large square in the city center. Some 70,000 people, according to the authorities, to 500,000, according to the tenants' union, marched in the Spanish capital.

“What is being breathed in the streets is a new energy, an energy which demonstrates that eight days of popular power are capable of doing much more than eight years of progressive government,” declared Valeria Racu, one of the spokespersons for the tenants’ union at the origin of the movement, in a dig at the Sanchez government.

“Politicians are at the behest of money, 'vulture' funds and away from the people,” criticizes Adhara Freile, 41, a gardener, who lives with her partner in a one-room apartment in Villaverde, a very remote district of Madrid, in one of the Madrid processions. Next year, when their lease expires, she fears they will be forced to leave their accommodation, as happened to other people in her building.

“Crushed by the system”

A 26-year-old bookseller, Marcos Sainz, previously rented a 3-room apartment with friends for 900 euros rent. Today, according to his findings, a two-room apartment is often worth 1,000 euros. “And again, I feel privileged because I can afford it,” he says. He assures that he will continue to protest “until someone dares to regulate all this, because we will all have to leave Madrid and that pains me, because I am from here”.

“We live in very precarious conditions, crushed by a system that does not offer us dignified conditions to live. And we demand a fundamental right: to have decent housing, stability and conditions that allow us to build a dignified life project,” says Javier, 31, an installer of photovoltaic panels. “Personally, at the moment, I live in a 90 square meter apartment, with three other people,” he explains. “I spend, like most of us, half my salary on a tiny room.”

“Here we can clearly see that we are the majority of people, and the problems that affect the majority seem not to concern our 'representatives.' They are not interested in it and are not taking any action,” he criticizes.

Housing crisis

These parades, which were planned before the rejection on Friday of the measures taken by the government by the deputies, are part of the crisis opened ten days ago by the expulsion of an octogenarian from her Madrid accommodation. The latter has become the symbol of the housing crisis that has been hitting Spain for several years. “It is now that real politics begins, the politics that has always belonged to the people and which is returning once and for all to the streets,” said Valeria Racu.