Peaceful demonstration in Spain ends with clashes and arrests

The demonstration in the evening remained largely peaceful, but there were isolated clashes towards the end. Some demonstrators threw bottles and chairs at a bar toward police and set several containers on fire. According to the media, the police arrested several young people.

At the event, the demonstrators had previously called for more living space. “You don’t understand this: people without homes and homes without people,” it said, among other things.

The current protests are triggered by the case of an 87-year-old whose apartment in Madrid was forcibly evicted. As a result, there have been large demonstrations in Madrid and other Spanish cities against high rents, a lack of housing and inadequate protection against evictions.

In surveys, the right-wing camp around the conservative Partido Popular and the right-wing extremist Vox party have been clearly ahead in recent months. The government was criticized, among other things, for the migration crisis in Ceuta; a corruption scandal involving the Spanish Social Democrats previously made headlines.