Clashes in Madrid and Barcelona after huge housing protests across Spain

Detailed summary

MADRID: Police fired tear gas as sporadic clashes broke out in Madrid and Barcelona on Wednesday after huge protests across Spain over housing costs and ...

MADRID: Police fired tear gas as sporadic clashes broke out in Madrid and Barcelona on Wednesday after huge protests across Spain over housing costs and purchasing power, weeks before a snap general election.

Hundreds of thousands of people took part in Spain’s first nationwide 24-hour general strike since 2012. Authorities estimated about 120,000 demonstrators marched in Madrid and 55,000 in Barcelona, with tens of thousands more at rallies in other cities, the latest in a wave of protests sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old Madrid pensioner in September.

After the marches, groups of hooded and masked demonstrators threw projectiles at police and started fires in both cities, AFP journalists said. Footage from Barcelona showed dumpsters, bicycles and potted plants on fire as police vans raced through the streets. Police used rubber bullet launchers and tear gas to disperse small groups and arrested 18 people in Barcelona.

The scale of the protests is seen as a sign of public discontent ahead of the Nov 29 election, in which the right-wing opposition is expected to defeat Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Sanchez called the vote, originally due in 2027, after his minority government failed to win parliamentary approval for a package of housing measures drawn up in response to the protests.

“People work a lot and it isn’t enough to pay the rent, to pay for a house,” Paula Diaz, a 25-year-old theater technician who lives with her parents, told AFP in Madrid. In Barcelona, 34-year-old microbiologist Maria Pinana, who shares a flat where parts of the ceiling have collapsed, said: “The price of rents should be regulated.”

UGT union leader Pepe Alvarez told public broadcaster RTVE that participation was “massive” and the strike “a huge success”, though the union acknowledged participation was “uneven”.

Public transport was disrupted in and around Barcelona despite minimum service requirements, while Madrid’s metro said 93 percent of trains ran in the early morning…

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