Tens of thousands protest across Spain demanding affordable housing

Tens of thousands of people protested across Spain on Saturday to demand affordable housing.

The protests come a day after the Spanish parliament narrowly voted down two emergency bills designed to support renters and prevent evictions.

"It only proves that it is us the people who have to adapt to the political parties, and not the politicians to what the people want, and this can't go on like that," one 26-year-old protester in Madrid told the Reuters news agency.

They are the latest demonstrations in a week-long wave of actions that began in response to the eviction of an 87-year-old woman, Maricarmen Abascalin, in Madrid.

"What we are feeling in the streets is a new energy that we haven't seen in a long time, and energy that is showing that eight days of people's power can achieve more than eight years of progressive government," said Valeria Racu, one of the spokespeople of the Tenants' Union organizing Saturday's protest.

Protests in dozens of cities

Police said around 70,000 people took part in the demonstration in Madrid. Organizers put the figure closer to 500,000 people.

Additional protests were held in around 50 other cities.

In the eastern city of Valencia, police used tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters.

Dozens of protesters had managed to get inside Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences — a major landmark in the city — before they were ejected by police.

What's next for the Spanish government?

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's proposed emergency measures included automatic renewal of tenancy contracts and restrictions on evicting vulnerable tenants. However, bills were shot down by opposition parties on Friday.

This defeat infuriated those who had been protesting against the country's increasingly unaffordable housing market all week.

"We are demanding a fundamental right: decent housing, stability and conditions allowing us to construct a decent life project," another protester in Madrid, aged 31, told the AFP news agency.

Spanish media reported that Sanchez might call a snap election for November after the legislation failed to pass, adding that the government would be watching Saturday's protests closely before making a decion.

Sahcnez's office declined to comment on the reports.