Tens of thousands of people marched through Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday, demanding affordable housing after lawmakers rejected proposed measures aimed at protecting tenants.
The protests came a day after Spain’s parliament voted down government-backed housing measures, including automatic renewal of tenancy contracts and restrictions on evicting vulnerable tenants.
The rejection has intensified public anger over soaring rents and house prices and created another political setback for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority government.
Madrid Housing Protest Draws Huge Crowd
Authorities estimated that about 70,000 people joined Saturday’s march through Madrid, while organisers claimed the turnout reached 500,000.
Hundreds of protesters have also been occupying a tent city in central Madrid for about a week, calling for urgent housing reforms.
The demonstrations were sparked by the September 23 eviction of 87-year-old pensioner Maricarmen Abascal from the Madrid flat where she had lived for more than 70 years.
Housing campaigners said the property was acquired by an investment company that sought to increase Abascal’s rent by 275 percent.
Following widespread public backlash, the new owners reached an agreement allowing the pensioner to return to the property at a lower rent.
Rent Increases Fuel Public Anger
For many protesters, rising rental costs have made living in Madrid increasingly difficult.
Marcos Sainz, a 26-year-old librarian, told AFP that he previously shared a two-bedroom apartment with friends for €900 a month.
He said a one-bedroom flat can now cost around €1,000 a month, which he described as about half the median monthly salary in Madrid.
“I will protest rental spikes until someone dares to regulate it all, as otherwise we’ll all have to leave Madrid and that would be a shame as I am from Madrid,” Sainz said.
Javier, a 31-year-old solar panel installer, said he spends half of his salary on a small room.
“We are demanding a fundamental right: decent housing, stability and conditions allowing us to construct a decent life project,” he said.
Tenants’ Union Calls For General Strike
Valeria Racu, a spokesperson for the Tenants’ Union, which helped organise the protests, said the demonstrations represented a new wave of public mobilisation.
“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,” Racu said.
She repeated the union’s call for a general strike.
Housing has remained a major concern in Spain, where housing supply has struggled to keep pace with demand.
According to real estate website Idealista, average rents in Spain have nearly doubled over the past decade, while asking prices for homes have increased by about 90 percent.
Sanchez Government Faces Political Pressure
The housing measures proposed by Sanchez’s left-wing coalition were defeated after Catalan separatist party Junts voted against them.
Junts, whose support the minority government relies on, argued that the proposals lacked sufficient rigour.
The party joined the opposition Popular Party and far-right Vox in voting against the measures.
Following the defeat, Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo called on Sanchez to “call elections as soon as possible”.
He argued that after eight years in power, Sanchez had the backing of “neither the streets nor parliament”.
The parliamentary defeat has renewed questions over whether Sanchez’s minority government can remain in office until the next scheduled general election in 2027.
Recent opinion polls have generally placed the Popular Party ahead of the governing Socialists.
