The Tenants' Union announces a Monday full of mobilizations in Barcelona

BarcelonaThe protests over the housing situation that have sparked an encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid will extend to Barcelona this Monday. The Tenants' Union (Sindicat de Llogateres) has announced a day of mobilizations in the Catalan capital that will begin with a surprise action at 8 in the morning and will be completed with a demonstration in the evening, taking advantage of the visit to Barcelona by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez. Spokesperson Carme Arcarazo has called to “paralyze” Barcelona.

At 8 p.m., Sánchez will preside over the award ceremony for the 2026 Vanguardia Awards. This Sunday, fellow union spokesperson Enric Aragonès called for all Catalans to go and “tell the Spanish president to his face” that indefinite rental contracts must be approved. “Any decree that does not include this will be a farce,” he said.

In parallel, the Tenants' Union called a meeting this Sunday evening in front of the house of Rosario Castelló, who is at risk of being evicted by a vulture fund, to prepare for Monday's protest. From there, Arcarazo set the four conditions that the decree must include: indefinite contracts; freezing of rental prices; reform of the Urban Leasing Act to put an end to "fraudulent" seasonal rentals; and preventing vulnerable people from being evicted without a "dignified" alternative.

The spokesperson for the Tenants' Union argued that this Monday "cannot be a normal day" and warned of the risk of a "farce decree," taking into account that "the Spanish government has been talking to Junts for days." Faced with this situation and a few hours before Tuesday's Council of Ministers, Arcarazo is demanding the mobilization of the citizenry to send a "very clear" message: "We will not swallow crumbs and will only accept the Maricarmen decree."

Pressure on Sánchez

Aragonès has warned that the housing decree being prepared by the Spanish government "cannot include only measures to delay some evictions in situations of vulnerability," and for this reason he has demanded an automatic renewal of leases, that contracts be indefinite: "These 48 hours that remain are key," he remarked, in reference to Tuesday's council of ministers.

Aragonès has said that "people do not take to the streets" to end up finding "cosmetic measures that bring more disappointment and more frustration." "People are fed up with living with the uncertainty that, when our rental contract ends, the owner of the apartment can kick us out without having to give us any explanation, that we can find ourselves packing our bags, moving every five or seven years, that we don't know how long we will be able to continue living where we live," the spokesperson criticized.