Spain braces for fresh protests over housing crisis
MADRID, SPAIN—Fresh protests over housing are due to take place in Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday, a day after parliament rejected two government measures to strengthen protection for tenants.
The government introduced the measures after nationwide protests following the eviction, on a stretcher, of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid apartment she had occupied for around seven decades.
The defeat was another political setback for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and has renewed questions over whether his minority government can survive until the next scheduled general election in 2027.
Catalan separatist party Junts—whose support was essential to approve the two decrees—voted against them, arguing they lacked rigor.
After the vote, the leader of the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, urged Sanchez to “call elections as soon as possible.”
After eight years in power, Sanchez had the backing of “neither the streets nor parliament,” he added.
Recent opinion polls have generally placed the opposition PP ahead of the Socialists. The Tenants’ Union, which has been coordinating the protests, has called for demonstrations on Saturday in more than 50 cities.
“There is an irreparable disconnect between what the people want and what the parties vote for,” it said in a statement. In Madrid, activists and protesters have been camping for about a week in Puerta del Sol, one of the capital’s main tourist squares.
Demonstrators are due to set off from several locations around the city at noon before converging on Plaza de Cibeles in central Madrid.
The package of measures defeated on Friday included the automatic renewal of rental contracts when they expire, as well as measures aimed at restricting the eviction of vulnerable tenants.
