Fresh housing protests to hit Spain

TENANT PROTECTION: The rejected package included the automatic renewal of rental contracts when they expire and restricting the eviction of vulnerable tenants

Fresh protests over housing were due to take place yesterday in Madrid and other Spanish cities, a day after parliament rejected two government measures to improve protection for tenants.

The government introduced the measures after nationwide protests following the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid apartment she had occupied for about seven decades.

The defeat was another political setback for Socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and has renewed questions over whether his minority government can survive until the general election next year.

A woman ties a tarp in the Puerta del Sol square as protesters continue with their protest camp following an extraordinary parliamentary session to vote on a government housing decree in Madrid on Friday.

Photo: AFP

Catalan separatist party Junts — whose support was essential to approve the two decrees — voted against them, saying they lacked rigor.

After the vote, main opposition conservative Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez 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 Popular Party ahead of the Socialists.

The Tenants’ Union, which has been coordinating the protests, called for demonstrations 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 were 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.

They also targeted so-called vulture funds — investment firms that buy properties at low prices in pursuit of higher returns.

Housing has for years been a top concern for Spaniards as supply falls short of demand, with rents and house prices soaring as elsewhere in the EU.

Average rents in Spain have almost doubled over the past decade, while asking prices for homes have risen by about 90 percent, according to real-estate Web site Idealista.

Abascal’s eviction catalyzed long-running anger about runaway housing costs.

She was forced to leave the Madrid flat where she had lived after it was acquired by an investment company that sought to increase her rent by 275 percent, according to housing campaigners.

The backlash led the property’s new owners to reach a deal allowing her to return to the flat at a low rent.