Housing cries: "How do I get out of here? Do I have to stay at my parents' house until I'm 40?"

Barcelona / PalmaFrom the letter A of Alicante, Albacete and Almería to the letter V of Valladolid and the X of Xixón. The thousands of people who overflowed onto Avenida Maria Cristina in Barcelona this Saturday celebrated with a shout of victory the name of each city that joined the first major national mobilization in defense of the right to housing. More than 40 Spanish towns and cities have coordinated their demands for more solutions to the housing emergency from the Spanish government—and the regional executives—whom they accuse of having focused their measures on tax breaks for property owners. "Today we have made history again," Carme Arcarazo, spokesperson for the Renters' Union, claimed in statements to the media before the rally.

Under the slogan "Let's end the housing business", 100,000 people according to the organizers and 12,000 according to the Guardia Urbana have filled the esplanade that extends from Plaça Espanya, with the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC) as a backdrop. The protagonists of some of the struggles that try to prevent the eviction of residents from entire blocks of flats have appeared on the stage of the main event. resist rent strikes in apartments owned by large financial institutionsThis is the case of people like Águeda Amestoy, spokesperson for the residents of Sentmenat, Banyoles, Vilanova i la Geltrú, and Sitges, who have decided to stop paying their monthly payments to the real estate agency InmoCriteria, owned by La Caixa. These properties are part of the public housing developments that are losing their social housing status, which the Union is urging Incasol to reinstate. "Rights are earned by disobeying," Amestoy argued.

The crowd gathered in Barcelona loudly applauded Mouad Kassoubi's speech on behalf of the Dar Zwina block, a building in Premià de Mar (Maresme) owned by the Blackstone investment fund and now occupied by the housing movement to prevent the eviction of residents to make seasonal rentals or tourist apartments. "It seems that this is only a problem when it affects the city center and middle-class families with easy-to-pronounce names," he lamented, warning of the "terrible consequences" of this crisis for "working-class neighborhoods where the 2008 crisis has never really ended." The event also gave voice to in the shack settlements that are under threat of eviction in places like the Vallcarca neighborhood, where Florina Drosu lives: "We are second-class citizens. When they throw us out, where will we go?"

After the November 23 demonstration in Barcelona Once a cry of alarm, the organizers have made it even more explicit that they find the political class's responses insufficient. Tenants' Union spokesperson Enric Aragonès accused the governments of "conniving" and "taking us for a ride" by pretending to change their tune, while they have benefited landlords with reductions in personal income tax. "But we haven't stopped, and we won't stop now," he warned. Throughout the event, citizens were called upon to organize in their neighborhoods and towns through housing unions and launch new rent strikes: "They've come to stay. If we stop paying, their business will fall apart," said Aragonès.

Some have already approached the organization to try to improve their situation, as is the case of 27-year-old Mireia. She shares a rental apartment in the Sagrada Familia, a 1930s building in poor condition, and has asked the union for help to at least get their windows insulated: "It's a tourist area where you can hardly sleep." "We need to put the governments aside and start helping each other as tenants. We've been trying for many years to get them to defend something that's in the Constitution," she criticizes. Isabel, 24, wants to become independent for the first time with her partner and would like to continue living in Nou Barris, but for the moment she has found it impossible: "In my neighborhood, rents are 1,000 or 1,200 euros, and when you just start working, you earn too little to be able to afford this. How do I get out of it?"

Rent prices in Catalonia have grown by 29% in the last decade., while salaries rose by 0.39%. Paula, 29, believes her situation is "sufficiently exceptional" because the owners of the apartment she shares in Barcelona haven't raised the price much since she's moved there. In any case, her salary of 1,400 euros is just enough to cover her monthly expenses: "Everything has gone up." Javi, 32, pays 500 euros for a room in the Catalan capital, but now lives with the uncertainty of having to renegotiate year after year whether he'll be able to stay or have to pack his bags again. "The situation is hopeless, it's impossible. The only option I see if my contract ends is to move back in with my parents and save up, because now prices are already 700 or 800 euros for a room," he says.

Demonstrations in Madrid and Palma

In Madrid, the demonstration for the right to decent housing started at midday from Atocha station to Plaza Espanya, and brought together thousands of people who shouted slogans such as "thieving landlords", "we need a rent strike now, we need a general strike now", "Madrid will be the grave of rentism"; "guilty renters, responsible government" and "we want to ask the rentiers how long can you hold out if we all stop paying you?".

While Spain was filled with protests against speculation, the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, assured X that she shares their demands: "Housing should be for living in, not for speculation. We will only achieve this if all administrations (city councils, regional governments)... In a thread, she outlined the measures promoted by the Spanish government in this area.

In Palma, also in the morning, 10,000 people took to the streets, according to the organizers—3,500 according to the National Police—to demonstrate against rising housing prices in the Balearic Islands. This is one of the most important concerns of citizens, according to the CIS (National Statistics Institute), and the Balearic Islands are one of the regions where the market is most strained. In a calm and protest-filled atmosphere, protesters shouted that they want to be able to "live in Mallorca." During the protest, shouts were heard especially against seasonal apartments: "Tourist rentals, get out of Mallorca." There were also calls for mobilization—"Wake up, neighbor, they're evicting you from your house!"—and slogans such as "Paying rent is a scam" and "Rentists out of our streets."