Tens of thousands demonstrate in Spain for affordable housing

After Parliament voted no to a regulatory package to address the housing shortage, tens of thousands of people in Spain demonstrated again on Saturday for affordable housing. As the Spanish state TV broadcaster RTVE reports, there are currently demonstrations in several cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia for the right to decent housing and better protection for tenants. According to the information, protests had been announced in more than 50 cities.

In Madrid, several demonstrations marched through the city center. A large banner read “Off to the general strike.” According to authorities, 70,000 people took part in the protests in the capital alone; the organizers spoke of 500,000.

The spokeswoman for the tenants' association of Madrid, Valeria Racu, said: "Power is back on the streets." With regard to speculation about early parliamentary elections, she added: "This is a warning to everyone. We will not tolerate another four years without addressing the problem in our country. This will continue until everything changes. In her statement, Racu called for a general strike in protest against the housing crisis.

A planned rally in Barcelona was postponed due to a severe weather warning. According to RTVE, there were isolated clashes between demonstrators and police officers during the protest in Valencia. The police used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

On Friday, the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez failed in parliament with two decrees due to resistance from conservative and right-wing populist MPs with which it wanted to take action against rising rents and evictions. In the previous days, following the sensational eviction of an 87-year-old in Madrid, there had been protests involving tens of thousands of people across Spain for the right to housing. Hundreds of people have been camping in central Madrid for a week to increase pressure for reforms.

With the failure of the two rental decrees, Sánchez's government has slipped into a serious crisis. She has hardly been able to get any initiatives through parliament since the conservative Catalan separatist party Junts, with seven MPs, stopped supporting her almost a year ago.

There is now speculation about early elections. The next elections would be normal next summer. The newspaper "El País", citing those close to Sánchez, reported that the politician wanted to gauge the extent of the discontent among the population over the failure of the decrees in the face of resistance from right-wing parties and the nationwide protests this weekend and then decide whether to call new elections.