{"id":230433,"date":"2026-11-12T05:43:06","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/millions-join-spains-first-general-strike-in-14-years-in-protest-at-housing-costs-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T05:43:06","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:43:06","slug":"millions-join-spains-first-general-strike-in-14-years-in-protest-at-housing-costs-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/millions-join-spains-first-general-strike-in-14-years-in-protest-at-housing-costs-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions join Spain\u2019s first general strike in 14 years in protest at housing costs – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-four-hour stoppage draws high participation weeks before election in which far right could gain power
Millions of people across Spain<\/a> have joined the country\u2019s first general strike in 14 years, setting up picket lines to protest against soaring housing prices before an election in which the far right could be catapulted into power.
At the centre of Wednesday\u2019s nationwide 24-hour stoppage, singularly called for by tenants\u2019 associations and later backed by workers\u2019 unions, is a pushback against Spain\u2019s deepening housing crisis.
Sandra Mora, of the Madrid Tenants\u2019 Union, told the broadcaster RNE: \u201cIt\u2019s extremely important to remind people that we, the workers \u2013 who are also renters or who also pay mortgages \u2013 are the ones with the power to halt production and bring the economy to a standstill.\u201d
While workers\u2019 unions reported high participation in the strike across several sectors, including 90% in the automotive and port sectors and 82% in waste collection, they said participation was uneven across the country. The strongest support was reported in coastal regions, such as Catalonia and Andaluc\u00eda, where the soaring cost<\/a> of housing has been particularly acute.
The Confederation of Tenants\u2019 Association described the strike as a success, saying in a statement that by midday about 4 million people had taken part.
Many schools and universities were reportedly closed or working at minimal capacity. In Madrid, the labour action added to a continuing teachers\u2019 strike that began nearly a month ago to demand better working conditions.
In Barcelona, workers set up roadblocks \u2013 some with burning tyres \u2013 as public transport came to a near-standstill. Pickets were in place soon after the strike began at midnight, blocking off entry to factories, markets and transport hubs. Key roads into Barcelona, including the AP-7 motorway, were blocked off in both directions.
In the evening an immense demonstration filled the city\u2019s main shopping throughfare, with protesters chanting \u201cNo more rents! Rent strike now!\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019ve brought the country to a standstill, now we\u2019re going to change it.\u201d The organisers claimed 400,000 took part in Barcelona, with local police putting the figure at 55,000. At night small groups of hooded protesters vandalised shops and set fire to rubbish bins, leading to a series of clashes with police.
In Madrid, government officials estimated 120,000 people turned out despite the pouring rain. Scuffles broke out between pickets and police near the country\u2019s main wholesale market, while thousands of demonstrators poured into the city\u2019s main boulevard, halting traffic temporarily. <\/strong>Government officials said more than 50 people had been arrested over minor incidents across the country.
Almudena L\u00f3pez, 74, and her husband attended the protest in Madrid thinking of their children. \u201cMy son is 43 years old and still doesn\u2019t own a home as he cannot afford one,\u201d L\u00f3pez said. She said her son, who works in IT, has to rent a small room in a shared apartment. \u201cWhen I was young, if you had a university degree, you could get a job by saving a bit \u2013 which always required some sacrifice \u2013 but you could manage. It\u2019s nothing like it is today.\u201d
Bad weather loomed over plans for afternoon marches after Spain\u2019s state meteorological agency issued 14 alerts for two storms that were expected to bring strong winds, heavy rain and rough seas.
Tens of thousands of people still came together in more than 90 marches, pouring into plazas in Barcelona, Madrid and other cities. The marches in C\u00e1diz, Seville, C\u00f3rdoba and Huelva had to be cancelled amid forecasts of winds gusting up to 75mph (120km\/h). In the evening a downpour quelled the protests in Barcelona and sent nearly everyone home.
The long-simmering frustration at soaring housing prices across Spain burst into public view<\/a> in September after the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the home in which she had lived for more than seven decades.
As protests and encampments sprang up<\/a> across Spain, it cast a spotlight on a market where properties have been increasingly used as tourist lets, speculative assets and short-term rentals, sending rents<\/a> rising by 80% within a decade while the cost of homes climbed by 63%.
Before Wednesday\u2019s strike, the tenants\u2019 union of Granada sought to highlight this link, descending on the city\u2019s most touristy areas to vandalise about 300 lockboxes belonging to short-term rentals. \u201cNo to capitalists, no to rent-seekers, no to their accomplices,\u201d the organisation wrote on social media, as they posted pictures of lockboxes that had been rendered unusable.
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Housing campaigners and unions have called on the government to do more to intervene in the market, with tenants\u2019 unions demanding measures such as a crackdown on housing speculation, the elimination of tourist lets and strengthened protections for renters.
While nominal wages for many across Spain had risen in recent years, Unai Sordo, the head of Spain\u2019s biggest labour union, the Workers\u2019 Commissions, said no amount of collective bargaining would be enough to address housing costs that had climbed by as much as 12% annually. \u201cThere is one issue that is fracturing the country, and that is the difficulty many people face in accessing housing,\u201d he told the broadcaster Cadena Ser.
Spain is holding a general election on 29 November. The snap vote was called by the Socialist prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a>, after rightwing parties torpedoed emergency legislation aimed at tackling the housing crisis.
Polls suggest the most likely outcome will be a rightwing coalition between the People\u2019s party and the far-right, anti-immigration Vox party.
While S\u00e1nchez has sought to focus the campaign on social issues, the discussion has shifted to questions over infrastructure after at least 69 people were killed in Spain\u2019s second deadly high-speed rail disaster this year.
This week S\u00e1nchez seized on the strike, whose official slogan is \u201cSalaries. Housing. Prices\u201d, as a way to recast the spotlight, posting a video in which he lauded developments such as the eight-hour work day and national health insurance and credited them to the labour movement and the right to strike. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy, but they changed Spain,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said.
His position sharply contrasted with the discourse of parties on the right who, in the lead-up to the strike, dismissed it as an effort by unions to help S\u00e1nchez remain in office.
This week the rightwing leader of the Madrid region, Isabel D\u00edaz Ayuso, accused striking workers of \u201cholding citizens hostage\u201d. Ayuso, who this year faced questions over her administration\u2019s decision to allegedly<\/a> spend \u20ac6.3m (\u00a35.4m) of public funds on a residential penthouse to use as a temporary office, added: \u201cEverything is chaotic, everything is gridlocked.\u201d
While she acknowledged union activity was a constitutional right, she also took aim at what she described as the \u201cmafia of union representatives\u201d <\/strong>and said she had vented her frustrations to the leader of the People\u2019s party, Alberto N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o, who polls suggest will be the next prime minister. \u201cI\u2019ll confess something,\u201d she told Spanish television. \u201cI spoke to Feij\u00f3o and I told him: \u2018Promise me this garbage will end.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty-four-hour stoppage draws high participation weeks before election in which far right could gain powerMillions of people across Spain have joined the country\u2019s first general strike in 14 years, setting up picket lines to protest against soaring housing prices before an election in which the far right could be catapulted into power.At the centre of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}