Tens of thousands of people demonstrated across Spain on Saturday to demand affordable housing.
The protests come a day after Spain’s parliament narrowly passed two emergency bills intended to support tenants and prevent evictions.
“This only proves that it is we, the people, who must adapt to political parties, and not politicians to what the people want, and it cannot continue like this,” a 26-year-old protester in Madrid told the Reuters news agency.
These are the latest protests in a week-long wave of actions that began in response to the deportation of an 87-year-old woman, Maricarmen Abascalin, in Madrid.
“What we feel in the streets is a new energy that we haven’t seen in a long time, and an energy that shows that eight days of people power can result in more than eight years of progressive government,” said Valeria Racu, one of the spokespersons for the Tenants Union which organized Saturday’s protest.
Demonstrations in dozens of cities
According to police, around 70,000 people took part in the demonstration in Madrid. Organizers estimate this figure at 500,000 people.
Other demonstrations took place in around fifty other cities.
In Valencia, in the east of the country, police used tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters.
Dozens of demonstrators managed to enter the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia, a major monument in the city, before being expelled by the police.
What’s next for the Spanish government?
Emergency measures proposed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez included the automatic renewal of rental contracts and restrictions on the eviction of vulnerable tenants. However, the bills were rejected by opposition parties on Friday.
The defeat infuriated those who had been protesting all week against the country’s increasingly unaffordable housing market.
“We are demanding a fundamental right: decent housing, stability and conditions that allow us to build a decent life project,” another demonstrator from Madrid, aged 31, told AFP.
Spanish media reported that Sanchez could call early elections in November after the law failed to pass, adding that the government would closely monitor Saturday’s protests before making a decision.
Sahcnez’s office declined to comment on the reports.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko
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