Madrid to close Sol metro station for cleaning over urine and ammonia at protest camp
Madrid's regional government ordered the Sol metro station closed on Friday, 16 October, for urgent cleaning and safety work. The move follows a lab report that found ammonia at up to 80% of the daily exposure limit in the station's ventilation shafts, which officials link to the housing protest camp in Puerta del Sol.
Closure ordered for Friday
The regional government of Madrid ordered the Sol metro station closed on Friday, 16 October, for what it described as urgent cleaning and safety work. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, announced the decision during an interview on esRadio. The station serves both the metro and Cercanías commuter rail at Puerta del Sol, the square where a housing protest camp has been set up. Ayuso said the closure would take place during the day without giving a set time, and that it would last at least as long as the work itself because conditions remained unhealthy.
They are going to have to close it during the day. I don't know at what point, but today.
Ayuso said the request for the closure came from occupational risk prevention staff and from the unions. The camp is organized by the Sindicato de Inquilinas, the tenants' union, and the protest was framed as a response to the housing crisis in Spain.
Lab report and the regional alert
On Thursday, 15 October, the regional government renewed its warning about serious sanitary conditions at the station, which it linked to urine, excrement and other organic waste in the ventilation wells and access shafts. The warning was set out in a letter from Jorge Rodrigo, the regional councillor for housing, transport and infrastructure, to the Government Delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín. The letter forwarded an environmental technical report issued on Wednesday, 14 October by Laboratorios Himalaya. According to the report, ammonia, amines and other organic compounds were present, with ammonia reaching up to 80% of the 14 mg/m3 daily exposure limit value in the wells and ventilation porticos. The laboratory attributed the findings to the breakdown of urea in accumulated urine and warned that such waste, in enclosed spaces with little air renewal, could produce concentrations potentially harmful to health. The regional government again demanded the dismantling of the camp.
- Laboratorios Himalaya issues environmental report finding ammonia and urine compounds at the station
- Regional government sends letter to the Government Delegate and again demands the dismantling of the camp
- Ayuso announces the Sol station closure for urgent cleaning and safety work
Crowds before the closure
On Wednesday, 14 October, the Policía Nacional closed the station's access points for several minutes after large crowds began to form, El Mundo reported. In the days before the announcement, the station had also been at the center of political attention because of crowding linked to a teachers' mobilization and the encampment at the kilómetro cero. El País reported that the camp had been occupied for 20 consecutive nights. El Mundo reported that it would complete three weeks on Saturday, 17 October.
Ayuso's accusations
Ayuso linked the closure to the camp's effect on business, saying the encampment would kill trade in central Madrid ahead of the Christmas season in November and December. She described fights, vandalized statues of the bear and strawberry tree and of Charles III, ambulances that struggled to pass, and attacks on journalists, and said the square was under the law of the jungle. She compared the plastic sheeting on the square to the greenhouses of El Ejido in Almería. She also accused Pedro Sánchez of allowing the situation to harm Madrid and of using the city to show what she called the Spain that awaits.
What remains unclear
No end date was given for the closure, and El Mundo reported that its length was not yet known. El País described Ayuso as the most forceful voice calling on the Government Delegation to clear the protesters and open passage through the square. The same outlet tied the protest to the eviction of a woman who died two weeks after being removed from her home, which prompted the encampment's start.
