Protests · updated 3h ago · 3 min read
Spain Police Block Puerta Del Sol as Tenant Union Protests Demand Housing Solutions And General Strike
Tens of thousands protest nationwide after parliament rejects emergency housing measures. Demonstrators demand a general strike and stronger tenant protections amid housing crisis.
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Madrid camp and arrests
Thousands of people, summoned by the Tenant Union, took to the streets this Saturday in Spain to demand solutions to the housing crisis and to organize a general strike, with Madrid’s Puerta del Sol encampment described as the flagship of the protests. The protests converged on Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles, where the march filled the square, with organizers putting the figure at 500,000 and the Government Delegate putting it at 70,000. Police blocked access to Puerta del Sol and ordered the closure of nearby Metro stations, Sol, Banco de España and Sevilla, as extremist groups gathered in the Plaza de Cibeles.
The police detained at least three people near Calle de la Montera while they tried to access Puerta del Sol after participating in a demonstration called by Indignados por España on Alcalá Street, according to sources from the Government Delegation in Madrid. The police cordon around Puerta del Sol was partially withdrawn after the far-right rally ended and its attendees withdrew, as the police began to lift the cordon around several streets adjacent to Sol.
Parliament rejects decrees
Spain’s protests followed the Spanish parliament’s vote on Friday to reject two decrees proposed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority left-wing government, which had intended to quell the crisis. Valeria Racu, a spokesperson for the Tenants’ Union, said Saturday’s rallies revealed “a new energy that we haven’t seen in a long time,” and she added that “eight days of people’s power can achieve more than eight years of progressive government”. BBC reported that the measures put forward by Pedro Sánchez’s leftist coalition government on Friday followed public outcry over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home last month after she was unable to afford a sharp rent increase.
BBC also said MPs rejected the first decree by 178 votes to 172 and voted against the second by 184 to 166, leaving the minority government depending on smaller nationalist parties in Catalonia and the Basque Country. Al Jazeera said the eviction of an 87-year-old pensioner from her Madrid home triggered the movement more than a week ago, as hundreds set up tents in central Madrid to push for reforms.
General strike pressure
The Tenants’ Union coordinated the protests and called for a general strike, with its statement saying, “There is an irreparable gulf between what people want and what the parties vote for.” In Madrid, demonstrators held banners reading “There won’t be peace for rentism” and “I study to have a future, not to have a tiny apartment,” and they shook the keys they were holding while chanting “We have the keys of all the city.” In Valencia, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to break up demonstrations, and BBC reported that nine police officers were injured and five people were arrested.
“There is an irreparable gulf between what people want and what the parties vote for.”
In Madrid, the encampment at Puerta del Sol continued as protesters chanted “No pasarán,” “Aquí están los antifascistas,” “Fuera fascistas de nuestros barrios,” and “Que viva la lucha de la clase obrera,” while police maintained a heavy cordon between Bank of Spain and Sol. Euronews said the defeat of the tenant protection decrees rekindles doubts about the ability of Pedro Sánchez’s minority government to last until the next general elections planned for 2027, and it quoted Alberto Núñez Feijóo urging Sánchez to “call elections as soon as possible.”