The Spanish parliament on Thursday passed measures restricting evictions and aiming to make housing more affordable, after a general strike and weeks of protests over the issue which catalysed a snap election.
But MPs rejected the automatic renewal of tenant contracts, a key demand of housing activists. The right-wing opposition, which leads most polls before the November 29 vote, has vowed to repeal the measures.
Unaffordable housing has been a running sore for years in Spain but the eviction of 87-year-old Madrid pensioner Maricarmen Abascal from her lifelong home in September, and her subsequent death, sparked national uproar.
Large demonstrations swept the country and protest camps sprang up for weeks in several cities, the largest in Madrid’s emblematic Puerta del Sol square.
Aiming to placate the widespread anger, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government rushed to present two decrees that included greater protection for tenants against evictions and the automatic renewal of tenant contracts.
But his minority government failed to pass them in parliament, prompting Sánchez to call a general election that had been scheduled for 2027.
On Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards hit the streets in a general strike over affordable housing, wages and public services that the main unions called after the decrees were rejected.
Sánchez introduced another two decrees that were almost identical to the rejected ones, which were examined on Thursday in a smaller parliamentary council that gave the government a better chance of passing the laws.
The measures that succeeded included some key demands by activists following the eviction of Abascal, who was forced out of her home after the real estate company that owned it drastically hiked the rent.
They restrict the eviction of vulnerable tenants without alternative accommodation until the end of 2030 and curb the acquisition of homes by so-called vulture funds, a much-maligned target of the protests that buy properties at low prices in pursuit of higher returns.
Parliament’s Standing Council, made up of 69 members including MPs and the speaker, reflects the size of the groups in the 350-seat chamber which had repeatedly thwarted Sánchez’s initiatives.
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The stance of pro-business Catalan separatists Junts, whose seven MPs voted down both of the original decrees, was no longer decisive as the party only has one representative in the council.
The main conservative opposition Popular Party, which tops most polls, says the measures will negatively affect the housing market, proposing a building spree as the solution to the crisis.
España ha doblegado a República Checa este jueves en la quinta jornada de la Nations League. En una primera parte muy igualada y en la que España apenas pudo generar peligro, una mano de Ambros en el área en un balón llovido dio la oportunidad a la Roja para adelantarse. Álex Baena tomó la responsabilidad y materializó la pena máxima para dar ventaja a España. Tras el descanso, el equipo de Luis de la Fuente se quedó a escasos centímetros de ampliar la ventaja. Un balón en largo de Unai Simón lanzó a Yeremy Pino y el canario no falló en el mano a mano ante Kovar. Sin embargo, estaba algo adelantado cuando el meta español dio el pase. El tanto anulado dio alas al equipo checo, que trataba de castigar con balones al área al combinado español. Sufrió España incluso cuando Krejci fue expulsado tras derribar a Roberto Fernández siendo el último hombre y no fue hasta el minuto 96 cuando Pubill cerró el partido con el 0-2. España se jugará el liderato del grupo contra Inglaterra en el Metropolitano el domingo en un partido en el que le vale un empate.
Parecía que, después de divertirse en El Hormiguero, Alberto Núñez Feijóo había acudido a lo mismo, a divertirse, en el mitin inaugural de campaña del PP. Su anfitrión, Xavier Garcia Albiol, el hombre en quien ha confiado para dar un empujón decisivo al PP en Cataluña, le ha preparado algo parecido a un tardeo multitudinario en el polideportivo de Llefià, un barrio humilde de la periferia de Badalona, su feudo. Pero Feijóo se ha puesto serio enseguida, consciente de que esta vez, en su segundo intento, tiene más opciones de convertirse en presidente del Gobierno para impulsar lo que ve como un “cambio necesario”. El candidato popular se ha presentado como un gestor solvente, capaz de “resolver los problemas” de los ciudadanos frente al “saqueo” de un gobierno, el de Pedro Sánchez, con el que “todo funciona peor”. “Sé hacerlo y tengo un programa”.
Spain’s main unions used the November 11 general strike to send a warning to the government that will emerge from the snap election of November 29: it will have to negotiate with workers’ organizations and address their demands, regardless of its own political color. “If they reach power, they will have to reach an understanding with us,” UGT general secretary Pepe Álvarez warned, alluding to the People’s Party (PP), which is currently in the opposition but leading voting intention polls. The PP had criticized the stoppage, calling it a “preventive electoral strike” against the mainstream conservatives, led by national PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The day unfolded across Spain under very inclement weather, with driving rain in many cities and the effects of Storm Charles, which forced the cancellation of marches scheduled in Andalusian capitals. The impact of the strike was more visible on the streets, roads and access points to logistics hubs than in stores or workplaces themselves, in part because of the extent of remote work and the mobility difficulties.
The demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful, although clashes were recorded in Madrid, where there were police charges, and in Barcelona. In the Catalan capital the protest descended into looting by groups of hooded individuals, who also launched pyrotechnic devices at the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, near Plaça de Catalunya. During the day there were more than 1,500 incidents across the territory involving pickets and demonstrators, according to the Interior Ministry. More than 50 people were arrested at pickets and that total rose to almost 70 in the subsequent disturbances.
Union leaders criticized the police response as excessive and for the use in some cases of pepper spray. The two main unions, CC OO and UGT, denounced disproportionate use of police force and announced they would study possible legal actions. The employer associations CEOE and Cepyme condemned the vandalism and demanded respect for the right to work of those who wished to go to their jobs.
In Madrid more than 120,000 people, according to the Government Delegation’s estimate (between 600,000 and 750,000, according to the organizers) took part in the demonstration at 6.00 pm. A tide of demonstrators defied the bad weather, from university students to government employees and pensioners, illustrating the breadth of the social concerns, which include a lack of affordable housing, low salaries and cost of living concerns. The march set off from Atocha station, passed along Gran Vía and reached Plaza de España, where a police cordon had been deployed.
Chanting “This is class struggle” and “Madrid will be the tomb of rentiers,” protesters marched through the capital’s streets in heavy rain at the end of a day of strike action that began to take shape after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old Madrid resident who died on October 7, two weeks after being forced to leave her home. Her fight, and her call for young people to “fight for what’s yours,” inspired a prolonged encampment in Sol square and led a group called the Tenants’ Union (Sindicato de Inquilinas) to make the first call for a nationwide strike.
The unions highlighted the high turnout in industry, automotive, logistics, energy and port facilities. By contrast, public administrations, health, education and much of the services sector registered a more limited impact. The unions placed territorial participation in a range from 41% in regions such as Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura to more than 80% in Catalonia and Andalusia.
Transportation was one of the areas most affected by the strike. The state railway company, Renfe, reported 6.83% participation among its night and morning shift workers. However, 24% of high-speed and long-distance commercial services were cancelled and 10.17% of scheduled Cercanías, Rodalies, Avant and medium-distance public services were suspended. In air travel, the airport operator Aena recorded 234 cancellations out of 4,529 scheduled flights until 10.00 am, representing 5.16% of the total.
Madrid concentrated some of the most serious incidents of the day, particularly at the wholesale food market Mercamadrid and at EMT bus depots. There were also temporary closures on roads, including the M-30, the A-42, the A-5 and the A-6. In Catalonia pickets blocked access to Barcelona and caused restrictions on the AP-7, the A-2 and the Ronda Litoral.
There was no widespread closure of retail stores. Supermarkets and major distribution chains kept their establishments open, although with staffing and schedule variations. The unions put participation at 60.8%, while employers said that small shops operated practically normally.
On television, the main national channels maintained their broadcasts, although there were two notable episodes in the public audiovisual sector: Canal Sur interrupted its programming, and RTVE Catalonia had to move the program Cafè d’idees to another set after a group of demonstrators entered the facilities.
An ‘unorthodox’ strike
Under the slogan Salaries, housing, prices, it was the first general strike called by the unions in 14 years, and even then it was viewed as “unorthodox” since it was not a response to a specific piece of legislation or to any single government body. Instead it grew out of a wave of public outrage over an eviction and out of protests organized by a group that is not a labor union. It also falls 18 days before a general election, and it comes after a train accident that has brought about “a certain shift in the country’s mood,” according to CC OO leader Unai Sordo.
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