Street closures in the morning and more protests in the afternoon: these are the mobilizations for housing in Barcelona

BarcelonaIncreasing pressure on the streets with less than 24 hours to go before Pedro Sánchez's government brings the new housing decree-law to the council of ministers. Also in Barcelona, where the Spanish president is scheduled to participate in an awards ceremony this Monday. Movements in favor of decent housing have taken advantage of this coincidence to make their voices heard and have scheduled a Monday of protests to prevent, they say, the new text from "being another farce".

Early in the morning, more than a hundred activists linked to the Tenants' Union blocked different roads in the capital and caused the first mobility problems. The protests began before 8 a.m. and were concentrated on Carrer Còrsega (at the height of Carrer Sant Agustí), on Avinguda Meridiana in Barcelona—one of the city's main arteries—and at Plaça de Sants, where blockades were also carried out and banners displayed. The goal, according to the union itself, was to "collapse" the city, but, in the end, the stoppages remained as blockades of about 40 minutes. The point where it was most difficult to restore mobility was on the Meridiana, which had queues and delays until past 9:30 a.m.

Conditions and threat of a general strike

The activists gathered on Còrsega street tried to block the Diagonal, but five Mossos d'Esquadra vans prevented them from doing so. At that same point, the union spokesperson, Enric Aragonès, demanded that the Spanish government ensure the decree to be approved tomorrow "is not a farce." "We are putting four things on the table: the automatic renewal of contracts and permanent contracts, to stop suffering; a law that ends the scams that tenants suffer with seasonal rentals, room rentals, or the return of the deposit; the freezing of rent prices during the contract; and the suspension of evictions of vulnerable people in accordance with United Nations criteria," Aragonès enumerated.

Faced with the possibility that the decree might not meet these conditions, Aragonès said that "the mobilizations will continue." "And we have already set on the horizon, with increasing strength and with more people in agreement, a general strike," he warned.

Once the morning protests and road blocks were dissolved, the union called on "all tenants" to return to the streets this afternoon to put pressure at the entrance of the event where Pedro Sánchez will be attending: "Today at 7 PM, everyone to the Barcelona Congress Palace!", Aragonès concluded by urging. The union points out that this will be the central act of the protests in Barcelona this Monday. "People are tired of living in fear, not knowing when they will have to pack their bags because a vulture fund's business is worth more than people's homes," he concluded.