BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Millions of Spanish workers shut down businesses and public transportation across the eurozone's fourth largest economy on Wednesday before thousands took to the streets of major cities in a nationwide protest over soaring rents and real estate prices.
Housing activists hope the massive show of force will lead to more regulations to protect tenants and crack down on real estate speculation, while Spain's left-wing government is seeking to mobilize voters ahead of a national election later this month with polls against it.
The walkout — under the slogan “Salaries. Housing. Prices.” — was the first general strike in Spain in 14 years, and the first whose principal push was born from unrest over housing.
The strike culminated in workers and average citizens gathering in downtown Barcelona and Madrid, along with protests in other cities. Housing activists said 400,000 marchers filled Barcelona, while the city government said 55,000 turned out to walk behind a huge banner that said “Live. Not Just Survive.”
Spanish government officials estimated 120,000 people turned out in Madrid despite pouring rain.
After the peaceful march in Barcelona, some apparently younger protesters started to smash storefronts of brand-name stores on Paseo de Gracia, a main shopping boulevard. They set off small bonfires in front of stores and on the street, and launched fireworks at police who arrived in riot gear and armored vans.
During the day, Barcelona’s metro and public buses stopped running outside rush hour. Street traffic was light. Many smaller establishments like coffee shops, however, did open.
Carlos Ferrer, a 45-year-old customer service worker who was trying to get back home to Alicante by train from Barcelona, said that sometimes only “radical measures, such as a general strike” can force a change of course.
“Authorities need to feel pressure from the citizens so they can do something,” he said.
Protesters march in Madrid, defying rain and pepper spray
As the evening fell in Spain's capital, the wide Paseo del Prado boulevard became a sea of umbrellas as a huge crowd turned out during steady rain.
Manuel Gómez, a 19-year-old student in Madrid, welcomed the housing protest, which he said marked a change for the country.
“In Spain, we have a serious problem, which is that when we don’t like something, we never go out to protest,” he said.
While the strike was organized by Spain's two traditional major unions, it featured the leadership of a grassroots housing activist group, mostly made up of younger people who have felt the housing pinch personally.
“This strike is against rent seekers, against real estate speculators, against the large companies that get rich by selling properties and, of course, against all the levels of government,” housing activist Valeria Racu told reporters in Madrid. “We are here to show that we have the capacity to mark our own agenda and we are going to keep doing so no matter who governs.”
Unions also hailed the strike as a success, while Spain’s business owners’ groups argued that it had fallen flat.
“The strike has exceeded the labor unions’ expectations,” said Unai Sordo, secretary-general of CCOO, one of the two unions calling the strike for a nation of 22 million registered workers.
CCOO and UGT, the other major union organizing the strike, reported significant work stoppages in strategic sectors. They said that the stoppages amounted to 90% in the automotive and port sectors, 85% in the meat industry, 82% in waste collection and 75% in the energy sector. Many schools and universities closed.
The leading business owners group, CEOE, however, called the strike a “failure,” saying that overall participation only reached 5%.
Where unions and the CEOE agreed was that worker participation was higher in heavy industry and transportation, while it lagged in other sectors of the economy like retail and restaurants.
About 5% of flights for Wednesday were canceled at airports across Spain, according to the country’s airport operator, AENA.
Minor incidents were reported in the first hours of the strike. Scuffles with police were reported by unions near the main wholesale market on Madrid’s outskirts. Police also used pepper spray against protesters in some places.
Before the clashes late in the day in Barcelona, police had already made 39 arrests across Spain for incidents related to the strike.
Workers and activists want more government action on housing
The average rent in Spain has almost doubled in the last decade, eating into household budgets and upsetting voters.
The anger reached a boiling point following the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home in Madrid last month. The subsequent death of Maricarmen, as the woman became known, solidified her as a symbol of Spaniards who can't dream of owning a home.
Housing activists used the uproar over Maricarmen's eviction to call for the strike, and soon won union backing.
“The uproar that started over 40 days ago with the eviction of Maricarmen hasn't stopped growing and has now flooded the streets of our cities,” Alicia del Río, spokesperson for the Tenants Union, said in Madrid.
The housing activists are seeking the automatic renewals of leases as a way to protect renters and other measures. Unions demand more public housing and a new minimum wage agreement.
Spain's left hopes to put focus back on housing
On the back of the housing protests, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called an early election, hoping to earn four more years in power for his left-wing coalition. The vote is set for Nov. 29.
Then, in late October came a high-speed train collision — Spain's second deadly rail disaster of the year — that killed 69 people. The aftermath of the tragedy has created a drag on Sánchez's campaign.
The strike now offers an opportunity for Sánchez’s Socialists and other parties on the left seeking to stay in power, analyst Oriol Bartomeus said.
“The Socialists need for the strike to be a success and for there not to be any violence so that the election campaign can swing back to being about housing,” Bartomeus, a professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told The Associated Press.
Sánchez kept a low profile on Wednesday. Earlier this week he posted a video on X lauding past social policy achievements like the 40-hour work week and national health insurance, which were the fruit of the workers' movement.
“It wasn’t easy, but they changed Spain,” Sánchez said, warning that right-wing parties would underfund social services if they took over.
The conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox argued that the unions were trying to help Sánchez.
“This is a gift by the unions to their political parties during the buildup to a campaign where it is clear the left needs all the help it can get,” said Popular Party spokesman Miguel Tellado.
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Medrano reported from Madrid. Hernán Muñoz in Barcelona, and Iain Sullivan in Madrid, contributed to this report.
