Spain: half a million tenants take to the streets, throwing down their keys: ‘Now for a general strike’

This Saturday’s demonstration was the second mass demonstration for the right to housing in just seven days. Last week, thousands of people – 25,000 according to the Government Delegation – marched through the streets of Madrid to defend Maricarmen, but since then the issue has broadened to include calls for a general strike. This is an unusual call, organised by a trade union that is not one of the traditional ones and which does not represent workers, factory employees or civil servants, but rather tenants.

If Pedro Sánchez was waiting to gauge the extent of the left’s mobilisation before deciding whether or not to call a snap election, this Saturday’s march provided him with a telling picture: tens of thousands of people expressing their rejection of a potential PP and Vox government – the scenario predicted by the polls. But the protest also highlighted, through chants, slogans and banners, the deep discontent with Pedro Sánchez’s own government and the last-minute decrees aimed at preventing further evictions such as that of Maricarmen, which had sparked the public mobilisation.

Alcuni manifestanti partecipano a una manifestazione per chiedere alle autorità di affrontare i persistenti problemi abitativi, a Madrid, in Spagna, il 3 ottobre 2026, all’indomani dell’introduzione da parte del governo spagnolo dei decreti in materia di alloggi volti ad affrontare

The demonstration also marked the culmination of ten days that have transformed the public debate. It all began on Wednesday 23rd, when Maricarmen was evicted from her home and taken away on a stretcher to hospital. Her case has mobilised hundreds of activists who have long been calling for action on the housing market and have been staging low-key protests against evictions every week.

Un cartello esposto fuori da una tenda all’interno di un accampamento di protesta in piazza Puerta del Sol, che chiede un intervento politico per fermare gli sfratti e affrontare la crisi abitativa, a seguito dello sfratto di una donna di 87 anni dalla sua abitazione, a Madrid, in Spagna, il 2 ottobre 2026. Sul cartello si legge: «Non lasceremo Sol senza uno sciopero generale». REUTERS/Alejandro Martinez Velez

But Maricarmen’s case has taken things a step further and mobilised thousands of people, who took to the streets for the first time last Saturday. That very afternoon, many of them protested against Ayuso outside the penthouse flat recently purchased by the Community of Madrid. The following day, Maricarmen sent her first video from hospital. A day later, the protests reached the streets of Madrid and the first tent appeared in Puerta del Sol, which has since become the epicentre of the campaign for the right to housing.

Five people were arrested and nine police officers were injured during the demonstration for the right to housing that took place in Valencia. This was reported by the Spanish media, citing police sources. The incidents broke out at the end of the march, outside the Palau de Les Arts, where a conference on property investment was taking place. A group of demonstrators knocked down the barriers protecting the entrance to the building and threw them, along with other objects, at the officers. Riot police responded by firing rubber bullets and smoke grenades and by charging the demonstrators on several occasions.