Evicting Goya to prevent 13,000 vulnerable families from becoming homeless

BarcelonaNot even the statue of Goya could be removed from Plaça Sant Jaume. The housing movement, which gathered in the center of Barcelona to demand the right to a roof over one's head, prevented the truck from taking away the giant bust of the Aragonese painter, placed in the middle of the square for the Spanish film awards ceremony held in Barcelona. At least, until the end of the demonstration under the slogan "Enough excuses. Apartments are for living," which filled more than half of the Barcelona square. The square can hold about 6,000 people when full, but according to the Barcelona police, the protest drew 1,100. Protests by social organizations followed. from the agreement between Junts, PP and Vox In Congress, protesters sought to overturn Pedro Sánchez's social measures package, which included an anti-eviction law. A vote in Madrid that will leave many "vulnerable families" homeless has prompted Enric Aragonès, spokesperson for the Rental Companies Union, to denounce the situation: "If we keep repeating that the economy is improving, but we continue to live worse and worse, we already know who is taking advantage of this frustration; it's fertile ground for extremism." The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, and Míriam Nogueras, spokesperson for Junts in Congress, have borne the brunt of the criticism. Much of the frustration of the protesters, who see how increasingly difficult it is to live with dignity in their city, has been directed at them. The Socialist mayor is criticized for "rolling out the red carpet" for "investment funds," as one banner proclaimed. "Collboni, no matter how much he gestures, is doing the same thing as Abascal," denounced Marta Espriu of the Housing Union Confederation. Nogueras was remembered as a representative of a "right wing" that has sided "with employers" and whose vote is pushing many vulnerable families toward homelessness. "150,000 tenants live in fear of when their contracts will end," lamented Espriu, who estimated that 13,000 families could be affected by the end of the moratorium voted on in Congress by Junts and the Spanish right and far right. Among pensioners and representatives of the left demanding an end to speculative housing purchases was also a group of young people from a recreation center in Gràcia. Thirty teenagers who also called for a better future. “We won’t have decent housing when we grow up, and we won’t be able to live in our neighborhood,” lamented 17-year-old Guim. “We see that housing prices are rising, and with the salaries we’ll have, we won’t be able to buy a place or move out on our own. Never,” added 16-year-old Bruna. “You can’t speculate with a person’s rights. If you can’t leave someone who is dying unattended, you can’t leave someone without a home either. Let them make a business of other things, let them sell nougat or cars,” concluded Biel, one of the youngest in the group at 15.

The demonstration took place under heavy security and also under the curious gaze of hundreds of tourists who were crossing the Gothic Quarter, wondering about the reason for the shouts and the banners that filled the square. "If it weren't for those people... Barcelona would be the city with the most evictions in Spain," a neighbor told his two companions on an afternoon stroll through downtown Barcelona as they circumspectly observed the stage set up by the organizers, right where, just minutes before, the bust of Goya had reigned supreme, only to be removed.