Hundreds in protests for housing in various cities of Spain

ANDm Barcelona, where the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is today, there have been several mobilizations and protests throughout the day, in the places where the government leader has passed.

At the beginning of the night, hundreds of people cut the Diagonal Avenue of Barcelona, near the Palace of Congresses, where there is a gala of the newspaper La Vanguardia in which Pedro Sánchez is.

The protesters exhibited posters with messages such as “All are Maricarmen”, “Stop evictions”, “Contracts [of lease] already indefinite” or “General strike already” and sing songs like “Down with the vulture funds”, “Where is the progressive government” or “Can’t be, people without houses and houses without people”.

The Spanish media also reported concentrations and protests this afternoon and early in the evening with hundreds of people defending measures for housing and tenant protection in Malaga, Córdoba and Seville.

According to public television TVE, there were demonstrations in a dozen cities.

In Madrid, hundreds of people settled in about 400 tents remain camped in the Porta do Sol square, demanding that the Sánchez Government approve on Tuesday, at the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers, a decree with measures for housing.

The protests due to the housing crisis and the growing difficulty in accessing a house have taken place last week in several cities of Spain, with a special dimension in Madrid, after the eviction by the 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal police of the apartment in the centre of the Spanish capital in which it has lived since 1956.

Under the motto “neither a Maricarmen more”, 300,000 people, according to the Association of Tenants and Tenants of Madrid, and 25,000, according to the authorities, manifested on Saturday in the streets of the city and hundreds have been camped since that day in the square Porta do Sol.

The Inquiries and Inquiries Union requires the Government to approve on Tuesday, by the Council of Ministers, a “Maricarmen decree”, which prevents evictions from vulnerable tenants such as Maricarmen Abascal, elderly and without an alternative accommodation.

Among other claims, the association also requires automatic renewal of lease contracts, without random increases in rent, when tenants are complying with payment obligations.

If the “Decree Maricarmen” does not leave the Council of Ministers, the camp in Madrid’s historic and touristic heart will continue indefinitely, as well as other protests, has already secured the Union of Tenants and Tenants.

In the face of the pressure on the streets and direct appeals from Maricarmen Abascal himself, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, revealed on Sunday that the Government and the PSOE are “working in counterclockwise” to bring a decree with various measures for housing to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday.

“ And I ask the parliamentary groups for one last effort to be approved in parliament,” said Sánchez.

In Spain, for a government decree to remain in force it must be ratified by Parliament within 30 days.

According to official data, this year there has been an average of 44 daily evictions in Spain.

In 10 years, the average price of the square metre in the lease in the country almost doubled, reaching 15,1 euros/m2 in August, according to the Idealist real estate portal.