Madrid housing march draws up to 500,000 as organisers demand general strike

Columns of protesters converged on Madrid's Cibeles square on Saturday demanding action on housing costs, in a march organisers put at 500,000 people and the regional government delegation put at 70,000. The demonstration was one of 54 marches held simultaneously across Spanish cities, according to ElDiario.es.

Marchers set off from four points, Plaza Espana, the Emilio Castelar roundabout, Hospital de La Princesa and Atocha, before merging at the Madrid city hall in Cibeles. Alicia del Rio, spokeswoman for the Sindicato de Inquilinas tenants' union, told the crowd a general strike would need support from across Spanish society, and said the union was in talks with labour unions to organise one, though no date has been set.

The protest followed Friday's vote in Spain's Congress rejecting two government housing decrees, which included measures to protect tenants from eviction and automatically renew rental contracts, with the Popular Party, Vox and Junts voting against them, according to La Stampa.

The demonstrations have been fuelled largely by the case of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman evicted on 23 September from the Madrid home where she had lived for more than seventy years, La Stampa reported. Her eviction triggered a permanent protest camp in Puerta del Sol that has continued to grow since.

Valeria Racu, spokeswoman for the Sindicato de Inquilinas in Madrid, told reporters before the march that the union would not accept another four years without addressing the country's biggest problem, and said the camp would continue while the union worked to revive the general strike as a tool of the labour movement.

The movement is demanding indefinite rental contracts, a freeze on rents, a moratorium on evictions and stronger protections for tenants, La Stampa reported. Marches planned in Barcelona and nearby L'Hospitalet de Llobregat were postponed because of forecast heavy rain on the Catalan coast, with organisers rescheduling the Barcelona march for 5 October in Urquinaona square.

Spain's deputy prime minister, Yolanda Diaz, said her Sumar party was "absolutely ready" for an early election, which La Stampa reported could follow the defeat of the housing decrees, though she said only Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez could dissolve parliament. Sumar, Izquierda Unida, Mas Madrid and Comuns were due to meet to discuss forming a joint coalition, with Podemos's participation still undecided, La Stampa reported.