How an eviction sparked Spain’s housing protests
The housing crunch has been simmering for years in Spain, but images of an elderly woman being carried from her home in a stretcher pushed protesters into streets
By Joseph Wilson and Alicia Leon / AP, MADRID, Spain
Tens of thousands of protesters in the past few days have taken to the streets of cities in Spain to demand help for renters, after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman put the government under immense pressure to tackle the nation’s entrenched housing crisis. Those demonstrations were amplified after lawmakers on Friday rejected Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s package of emergency measures to tackle the housing affordability crisis.
Sanchez yesterday announced early general elections to take place on Nov. 29, aiming to seize on his base’s anger over the rejected housing measures.
Large crowds marched in Madrid calling for a general strike and affordable housing. In the eastern city of Valencia, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who broke through the security perimeter outside the City of Arts and Sciences, a futuristic complex by famed architect Santiago Calatrava, where a real-estate summit was being held.
Illustration: Yusha
Images showed altercations between police and protesters, with officers using batons to strike demonstrators, who threw barriers.
About 1,000 protesters have spent the past week camped out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, one of the capital’s most popular public spaces, after Maria del Carmen Abascal was evicted from her home of seven decades in downtown Madrid on Sept. 23.
The protesters say they will not leave until the government takes real steps to protect tenants. A similar encampment has cropped up in Barcelona’s Plaza Catalunya.
The Sanchez-led government responded with emergency measures aimed at restricting evictions, curbing property speculation and giving renters indefinite leases, among other measures, but conservative opposition parties joined forces to reject the ratification of the measures in parliament.
The housing crunch has been simmering for years in Spain, eating into household budgets and angering voters. While many countries have similar circumstances, Spain’s poorest and its young are being particularly impacted, because they cannot afford to purchase a home and are being squeezed by the country’s small stock of rental properties.
The average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the past 10 years. The price per square meter has risen from 8.20 euros (US$9.19 at the current exchange rate) in 2016 to 15.10 euros this year, according to the real-estate Web site Idealista.
The government said that 26 percent of Spaniards who rent housing spend an average of 40 percent of their income on rent and utilities, compared with the EU average of 18 percent.
Spain ranks near the bottom of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for government-owned rental properties, which represent less than 2 percent of its available stock. The EU average is 8 percent.
Tens of thousands of people periodically march in major cities demanding action from lawmakers and blaming real estate speculators as well as tourist apartment platforms like Airbnb for rising rents.
However, a new wave of indignation swept Spain when Abascal, who uses a wheelchair, was carried on a stretcher from her apartment after police cordoned off the street. Televised images of the eviction prompted thousands of people to protest in Madrid and other cities across the country.
“I haven’t managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others can learn to fight for what’s theirs,” Abascal said in a video recorded from a hospital bed after the eviction.
The Spanish real-estate company that had insisted on evicting her to rent the property at a much higher price ended up reaching an agreement for her to return to the apartment, her lawyer said, adding that Abascal was “happy.”
She has yet to be discharged from the hospital.
Even with a satisfying resolution for “Maricarmen,” as Abascal is now widely known, she remains the embodiment of the struggle against suffocating rental costs.
Protesters have carried signs with slogans such as “Not even one more Maricarmen,” and demonstrations have been cropping up in cities across the country.
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