Barcelona housing camp reaches 220 tents as Junts opposes government decrees

Encampment expands in central Barcelona

The housing protest camp in Barcelona's Plaça de Catalunya expanded from 50 tents on Wednesday night to 200 by Thursday evening, reaching 220 tents and approximately 400 demonstrators by Friday morning. The camp grew after the tenant union Sindicat de Llogateres and the PAH housing platform joined the protest on Thursday. Barcelona City Council recorded around 450 people participating in the central square. Activists installed communal infrastructure, including food tables, a beverage station, a book share box, a communal clothing rack, an information point, and a purple assistance desk. Demonstrators also erected tarpaulins to shield the camp from rain before convening a general assembly that called for a general strike over housing costs.

Political fallout over congressional decrees

Discontent intensified after Junts per Catalunya announced it would reject two government housing decree-laws scheduled for a vote in Congress. The measures, known as the Maricarmen decree after an 80-year-old woman evicted on 23 September in Madrid's Retiro district, divide into two separate texts. The first package extends an eviction moratorium for vulnerable households to 2031 and curbs property acquisitions by investment funds. The second package introduces automatic renewals for rental contracts alongside a 10% value-added tax on tourist flats. With Junts withholding backing, camp members mobilized toward the party's Barcelona headquarters while another group moved to block an eviction in the Raval neighbourhood. Camp representative Arteko voiced frustration over the parliamentary deadlock.

We have seen that in the end they say they will not approve any of them. We don't expect anything from politicians, I don't care if they are left or right.

Coordinated mobilizations across Spanish cities

The camp influx followed Thursday evening pot-banging demonstrations outside town halls across Spain. In Barcelona, between 800 and 2,000 people rallied at Plaça de Sant Jaume before marching to Plaça de Catalunya, chanting against speculative landlords and commemorating Olga, an evicted woman from L'Hospitalet who died by suicide on 7 September. In Madrid, crowds banged cookware and keys outside City Hall in Plaza de Cibeles under National Police surveillance. Labor union leaders Unai Sordo of CC.OO. and Susana Huertas of UGT Madrid attended the Madrid gathering. The Madrid tenants union Sindicato de Inquilinas, which maintains more than 1,000 tents at Puerta del Sol, advocated for the royal decrees.

Not only have we demonstrated that an evicted person can return to their home thanks to union strength, but we have demonstrated that what a government has not done in eight years can be achieved in days.

Legal relief and student mobilization

Before the congressional debate, local courts in Barcelona applied the decree-laws on Thursday morning to suspend two scheduled evictions. The decisions halted the removal of a woman in Sant Andreu who previously paid 850 euros monthly in cash, as well as a family with four minors whose lease had terminated. Young residents and university students formed a significant share of the new arrivals in Plaça de Catalunya, describing steep rents that force workers into outlying municipalities like Cerdanyola. The movement continues indefinite occupation of central squares across both Barcelona and Madrid.