Spanish tenant unions mobilize in 50 cities after Congress rejects housing decrees

Demonstrations across Spain

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in more than 50 cities across Spain on Saturday to demand housing access and protest rising rents. In Madrid, four separate march columns departed at midday from Atocha, Plaza de España, Hospital La Princesa, and the Puerta del Sol camp. The columns merged outside Madrid City Hall at Plaza de Cibeles at 13:36 under the shared banner "Towards a general strike." Demonstrators chanted slogans against municipal authorities and real estate speculation as organizers directed crowds with megaphones. In Catalonia, heavy rain forced the Sindicat de Llogateres to postpone a Saturday evening demonstration in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, rescheduling the gathering for Monday, 5 October at 19:00 in Barcelona's Plaza Urquinaona.

Origins of the ten-day crisis

The nationwide mobilizations followed ten days of escalating tension triggered by the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old resident of Madrid. Police evicted Abascal from the apartment she had inhabited since 1955 after the property firm Urbagestión sought a 275% rent increase. The eviction sparked a demonstration on 26 September, after which about one hundred activists established a tent camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol in front of the regional government headquarters. Abascal subsequently reached an agreement with Urbagestión allowing her to return to her home. Her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, attended Saturday's march in Madrid to advocate for broader tenant protections.

Although the decrees were minimum measures, they were necessary to somewhat curb the evictions that occur every day and speculation. It was the beginning of a path. It has been a deep disappointment and this cannot continue like this.

Defeat of government housing decrees

Political pressure intensified as the coalition government divided its proposed housing package into two separate decree-laws to secure parliamentary approval. On Friday, 2 October, the Congress of Deputies rejected both texts. The conservative Partido Popular, the far-right Vox, and Catalan pro-independence party Junts voted against both measures, while the Basque Nationalist Party and Coalición Canaria rejected the second decree. The failed legislation sought to expand tenant rights, restrict evictions of vulnerable citizens, and limit price increases. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the chamber during the debate before beginning weekend deliberations on whether to call early general elections before the scheduled 2027 date.

History will judge you sooner than you think and more forcefully than you imagine.

Catalan President Salvador Illa criticized the opposition parties during a speech in Barcelona on Saturday, noting that Catalonia has applied rent caps while arguing that an alliance of Junts, PP, and Vox repeatedly blocks progressive housing reforms.

Calls for a general strike and legal debate

Following the parliamentary defeat, tenant unions called for a general strike to demand structural reforms to the housing market. Valeria Racu, a spokesperson for the Sindicato de Inquilinas, addressed demonstrators in Madrid and framed the mobilizations as a renewed phase of street politics.

What can be breathed in the streets is a new energy, an energy we had not seen for a long time, an energy that comes from proving that eight days of popular power are capable of doing much more than eight years of progressive government.

Mainstream trade unions expressed caution regarding the proposal. Pepe Álvarez, general secretary of the UGT union, stated that labor leaders are evaluating a unitary response to open a path toward recovery. Meanwhile, Antonio Garamendi, president of the CEOE business confederation, questioned the legal basis of any work stoppage centered on housing policy, stating that strikes are legally valid only when addressing labor conflicts.