Spain’s housing protests surge into powerful mass movement

What began with the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid has quickly developed into a mass movement of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets throughout the Spanish state. They are demanding housing as a right and not an investment vehicle to be profited on by private equity firms and rich landlords.

The movement has included massive marches, ongoing encampments, growing calls for a general strike, and Prime Minister Sanchez now calling for a snap national election in response to the movement.

Mass protests erupted after the September 23 eviction of María del Carmen “Maricarmen” Abascal, who lived in the same Madrid apartment for roughly 70 years. An investment fund acquired the building and sharply increased her rent. She could no longer afford to live in her own home. Images of police removing the elderly woman from the apartment outraged people and became a rallying point for widespread anger over soaring rents and housing insecurity.

The anger fueling the protests comes from a growing gap between housing costs and people’s wages. Average rents in Spain have gone up by about 40% over the past decade. In cities like Madrid and Barcelona, rents have gone up far more than the national average. Meanwhile, wages for young workers increased by less than 10% during the same period. Especially for younger workers and retirees, stable housing is increasingly out of reach.

Three days after Maricarmen’s eviction, on September 26, many thousands of people took to the streets in Madrid and dozens of other cities under the slogan “Not one more Maricarmen.” After the protest, people didn’t go home. They established an encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol that grew into a permanent protest camp. Organizers from the Madrid Tenants’ Union declared they would remain until meaningful housing reforms were enacted.

The movement soon spread beyond Madrid. Protest encampments appeared in Barcelona and other cities while demonstrations and support actions were organized across the Spanish state.

The central goal of the protests is that housing be treated as a right rather than a financial asset for profit. This has resonated deeply throughout the country and beyond. The same realities of massive rent and housing cost increases combined with stagnating wages exist in cities across Europe, including Lisbon, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin and London.

The mass movement for housing rights has quickly created a major political impact. After the Spanish parliament rejected key emergency housing measures, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez dissolved parliament and called a snap election for November 29, arguing that voters should decide whether stronger intervention in the housing market is needed.

The movement has not dissipated, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in mass protests again on Saturday, October 3. Because the housing crisis is so severe and widespread for working people, it just took the single spark of the outrageous eviction of Maricarmen to start a prairie fire. With hundreds of thousands of people participating in ongoing protests and new elections coming that will center on the right to housing, the movement seems likely to keep growing. And with similar housing crises throughout Europe, the movement could easily spread further.

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