Millions of people across Spain joined the first general strike in 14 years. Participants organized pickets to protest the rapid rise in housing prices—all on the eve of elections that could bring far-right forces to power, UNN reports, citing The Guardian.
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At the center of the nationwide 24-hour strike held on Wednesday was the fight against Spain’s deepening housing crisis. The action was initiated by tenants’ associations, which were later joined by trade unions.
Sandra Mora of the Madrid Tenants’ Union told the public broadcaster RNE: "It is extremely important to remind people that it is we—the workers who are also tenants or paying mortgages—who have the power to stop production and paralyze the economy."
Trade unions reported high participation levels across various sectors of the economy: in particular, the figure reached 90% in the automotive and port industries, and 82% in waste collection. At the same time, activity varied across the country’s regions. The strongest support was recorded in coastal regions such as Catalonia and Andalusia, where the problem of rapidly rising housing costs is felt particularly acutely.
The Confederation of Tenants’ Associations called the strike a success: according to its statement, around 4 million people had taken part in the action by midday.
Many schools and universities were reportedly closed or operating on a limited basis. In Madrid, the strike coincided with a prolonged teachers’ protest that began almost a month ago, demanding improved working conditions.
In Barcelona, participants blocked roads—in some places with burning tires—bringing public transport to an almost complete standstill. Immediately after the strike began at midnight, protesters organized pickets, blocking entrances to factories, markets, and transport hubs. Key routes into Barcelona, including the AP-7 motorway, were blocked in both directions.
In Madrid, clashes occurred near the country’s main wholesale market between picketers and police, while thousands of demonstrators took to the city’s main boulevard, temporarily halting traffic. According to government officials, more than 50 people were detained across the country in connection with minor incidents. Plans for afternoon marches were threatened by bad weather: Spain’s State Meteorological Agency issued 14 warnings due to two storms that were forecast to bring strong winds, heavy rain, and rough seas.
Despite this, tens of thousands of people gathered to take part in more than 90 actions, filling squares in Barcelona, Madrid, and other cities. In Cádiz, Seville, Córdoba, and Huelva, marches had to be canceled because of forecast wind gusts that could reach 120 km/h.
Long-standing discontent over rapidly rising housing prices across Spain erupted into open protest in September after 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from the home where she had lived for more than seven decades.
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The wave of protests and the appearance of tent cities across the country drew attention to the situation in the real estate market. Housing is increasingly being used to accommodate tourists, as a speculative asset, or for short-term rentals. This has led to rents rising by 80% and housing prices by 63% over the past decade.
Ahead of Wednesday’s strike, the Granada Tenants’ Union decided to draw attention to this connection: its members went to the city’s most tourist-heavy areas and damaged around 300 key safes used by owners of properties rented out on a short-term basis. "No to capitalists, no to those who profit from renting, and no to their accomplices," the organization’s representatives said on social media, publishing photographs of the disabled safes.
Housing movement activists and trade unions are calling on the government to intervene more actively in the market. In particular, tenants’ unions are demanding measures such as combating speculation in the property market, banning the rental of housing to tourists, and strengthening the protection of tenants’ rights.
Although the nominal wages of many Spaniards have risen in recent years, Unai Sordo — head of the country’s largest trade union confederation, the Workers’ Commissions (Comisiones Obreras) — said that even the most successful collective bargaining would not be able to compensate for the rising cost of housing, which is increasing by 12% a year. “There is a problem that is dividing the country — it is the difficulties many people face when trying to find housing,” he said on the Cadena Ser radio station.
General elections will be held in Spain on 29 November. The snap election was called by Socialist Party Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez after right-wing parties blocked the adoption of emergency legislation aimed at overcoming the housing crisis.
According to polling results, the most likely outcome of the election will be the formation of a right-wing coalition involving the People’s Party and the far-right, anti-immigrant Vox party.
Although Sánchez tried to focus the election campaign on social issues, the debate shifted towards infrastructure after Spain experienced its second fatal high-speed rail accident of the year, which claimed the lives of at least 69 people.
This week, Sánchez used the strike, whose official slogan was “Wages. Housing. Prices,” as an opportunity to shift the focus of public discussion. He published a video highlighting achievements such as the introduction of the eight-hour working day and the national health insurance system, attributing them to the labour movement and the right to strike. “It was not easy, but they changed Spain,” Sánchez stressed. His position sharply contrasted with the rhetoric of right-wing parties, which rejected the strike ahead of it, calling it an attempt by trade unions to help Sánchez remain in office.
This week, the head of the Madrid region, right-wing representative Isabel Díaz Ayuso, accused the strikers of “holding citizens hostage”. Ayuso — who this year came under the spotlight after her administration reportedly decided to spend €6.3 million (£5.4 million) in public funds on a penthouse intended to serve as a temporary office — added: “There is complete chaos; everything is paralysed.”
Although she acknowledged that trade union activity is a constitutional right, she sharply criticised what she called the “mafia of trade union representatives”. Ayuso also said that she had shared her indignation with People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who, according to opinion polls, is set to become the next prime minister. “I confess to you,” she said on Spanish television, “I spoke to Feijóo and told him: ‘Promise me that this disgrace will be brought to an end.’”