The encampment for housing arrives in Barcelona: a hundred people in Plaça Catalunya

BarcelonaThe protest that broke out with the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid and that transformed into a large encampment at the Plaza del Sol on Saturday, has reached Barcelona. This Tuesday, a few hours after the Spanish government approved the new housing decree-laws in the Council of Ministers, but without yet having the support of its partners, a hundred people have camped at Plaça Catalunya with the intention of spending the night there. "The encampment will continue forward, whether the decree is approved or not," they asserted in a statement on social media through which they made the call for this Tuesday night, which already has about twenty tents.

The protesters organized themselves into an assembly at seven in the evening and in the evening they formed several groups for dinner. "The idea is to resist and we hope to be many more," explains Lua to ARA from the center of Plaça Catalunya. According to the call spread via social media, the organizers are "a group of people from different housing unions, assemblies, and people with a common concern" who have united to organize "in the face of the difficulties imposed on us to access housing." For the moment, no union has formally called for it, although this evening at the assemblies one of the things being evaluated is whether any entity ends up making a call.

"For me, this is vital," asserts Cindy also from the encampment. She is unemployed and dedicates 45% of her income to the rent of a room. She explains that after this and the expenses to help her family in Colombia, she has 200€ left to live on. She has come to volunteer to do the tasks that are needed, such as cooking. She explains that in 2023 she was arrested and acquitted for allegedly coercing the owner of the apartment where she lived, and which she had rented two weeks earlier. She assures that the owner wanted to use it for tourist rental and she refused to leave. Like others among the protesters, she shared her story at the assembly that was held at the Plaza at 9 p.m.

No party or union

They claim that the movement is a call to the citizenry to act in the face of "the increase in evictions, the rise in rent prices, and the repeated inability to access decent housing" and express skepticism regarding the decisions of Pedro Sánchez's government. "There are many of us who know that any decree approved by the government will be completely insufficient and will leave out a large part of the population, especially the most precarious," they state on social media.

"This struggle must arise from personal self-management and not from any political party or union. Let us remember that it is a class struggle, which affects everyone transversally," they insist.

In Barcelona, the embryo of this new protest, which recalls the 15-M movement from fifteen years ago, was formed this Monday following the protest rally in front of the Barcelona Congress Palace, taking advantage of the presence of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, at the venue.

After this action, about thirty people gathered at Plaça Catalunya and held an assembly with the intention of camping. Ultimately, they did not stay, but the protest has ended up materializing this Tuesday.