Madrid (AFP) - Madrid and other Spanish cities are witnessing Saturday mass demonstrations against the backdrop of the housing crisis. Organizers estimated the number of participants at hundreds of thousands, the day after Parliament rejected measures proposed by the government to contain the crisis.

Published on: 03/10/2026 - 16:40 Last updated: 03/10/2026 - 18:28

The demonstrations come in the context of the crisis that began about ten days ago, with the eviction of an elderly woman from her home in the capital, becoming a symbol of the housing crisis that has been hitting Spain for years.

On Friday, Parliament dropped two draft laws submitted by the government of Pedro Sanchez in an attempt to contain the housing crisis, dealing a setback to the Socialist Prime Minister and opening the door to escalation of the protests.

On Friday, the opposition parties in the Spanish Parliament rejected the measures proposed by the Sanchez government, which included the automatic renewal of lease contracts and imposing restrictions on the eviction of tenants of modest categories.

The rejection of the measures sparked anger among protesters over the increasing cost of housing in the country.

Hundreds of protesters have been holding a sit-in for a week in a camp set up in the heart of Madrid to press for reforms.

The authorities estimated the number of participants in the protest movement in Madrid at seventy thousand people, while the organizers said that the number was approximately half a million.

Marcos Sainz, 26, a librarian, was renting a two-bedroom apartment with friends for 900 euros ($1,000) a month, but he explained that the rent for a one-bedroom apartment today amounts to 1,000 euros, half the average monthly salary in Madrid.

He told Agence France-Presse that he will continue to protest against rising rents "until someone dares to control them, otherwise we will all have to leave Madrid, and that will be unfortunate, as I am a Madridista."

Call for a general strike

Javier, 31, a solar panel installer, said, “We demand a basic right: decent housing, stability, and conditions that allow us to build a decent life,” adding, “I spend half my salary on a very small room.”

"What can be felt in the streets is a new energy, an energy that we have not seen for a long time, an energy that shows that eight days of people's rule are capable of achieving much more than eight years of progressive rule," Valisia Raco, a spokeswoman for the tenants' union organizing the protest movement, said in a statement, criticizing the government of socialist Sanchez.

She added, "Here the real politics begins, the politics that has always belonged to the people... We want to restore the historical tool that has always been used by people working to change reality: the general strike."

Hundreds also demonstrated in other cities such as Palma de Mallorca, Santander, Segovia and Toledo, while the demonstration in Barcelona was suspended due to a storm.

Providing affordable housing represents one of the most prominent social problems in Spain in recent years, but the protests took on a broader dimension after elderly tenant Maricarmen Abascal was forced to leave an apartment in which she had spent about 70 years after a company took over the property and raised the rent by 275 percent.

Following angry reactions, the new owners of the property reached an agreement allowing her to return to the apartment in exchange for a low rent.

Average rents in Spain have nearly doubled over the past decade, while house prices have risen by about 90 percent, according to the Idealista real estate website.

Early elections

Parliament rejected the two draft laws related to housing presented by Sanchez's leftist coalition, after the Catalan separatist "Units" party, on whose support the government depends, voted against them, considering that they lacked rigor.

Younts joined the People's Party, the main opposition movement, and the far-right Vox party in rejecting the measures.

After the vote, PP leader Alberto Nunes urged Viejo Sánchez to "call elections as soon as possible."

He added that after eight years in power, Sanchez no longer had the support of “the street or parliament.”

Recent opinion polls put the opposition People's Party in the lead over the Socialists.

© 2026 AFP

The content you want to browse is no longer in service or is currently unavailable.