Associations intensify protests for housing in Spain

ANDm parallel, the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, of the left platform Somar, who is in the coalition of government with the Socialist Party (PSOE), has again today appealed to the maintenance of pressure on the streets, less than 48 hours from the vote in the national parliament of two executive decrees with measures for housing, including limitations to evictions, increase of rents or purchase of houses by investment funds.

The Confederation of Inquilinas of Spain, which brings together associations to defend the right to housing and has led thousands of people to the street in the last week, has today called “caught” for Thursday, at 20:00 locals (19:00 in Lisbon), in front of all the municipal chambers of the country.

The goal is “to require Congress [parliament] the Maricarmen Decree,” the confederation said, in a statement.

The “Decree Maricarmen” is the package of extraordinary measures that the Government approved on Tuesday after days of demonstrations in the streets triggered by the eviction in Madrid of the 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal house where he lived since 1956.

The confederation stressed that “mass mobilization” and “strength in the streets managed to “punch out the government” two decrees that now parliamentary groups have to ratify in order to remain in force, and so “fundamental that thousands of people” will manifest themselves tomorrow in front of the city councils throughout the country.

The associations consider that it is also necessary to “go further” and carry out “a general strike for housing” in Spain because “a standard of urgency, such as these decrees, cannot reverse decades of policies that have transformed housing into a business”.

“A window of historic opportunity has been opened to change housing policies once and for all” and “only the mobilization of thousands and thousands of people who press a general strike for housing can achieve it,” defends the Confederation of Inquilinas Unions, which called for demonstrations for Saturday “in all the large cities” Spanish.

According to the statement, there are already 22 demonstrations confirmed throughout the country.

The concentrations for housing have been extended by several Spanish cities in the last week, with the largest camp to be installed since Saturday in Porta do Sol square, in the center of Madrid, where there are now about 1,000 tents, according to calculations by the media.