Spain Housing Strike Draws Millions, 115 Arrested in Clashes
The day of protest was mostly peaceful. But evening clashes with police have sparked a row inside the government, and Amnesty International says officers used too much force.
MADRID, Nov 12 – More than 3 million people joined protests during Wednesday’s housing strike in Spain, unions said. The day was largely peaceful, although police arrested 115 people, mainly during clashes in Barcelona and Madrid in the evening.
It was Spain’s first general strike in 14 years. Workers braved stormy weather to set up picket lines, and large marches were held in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities. The protest came less than three weeks before a snap general election on November 29.
The trouble began as the marches ended.
In Barcelona, protesters clashed with police and set furniture on fire in the street, Reuters video showed. In Madrid, riot police fired foam bullets, tear gas and pepper spray to break up crowds around the central Plaza de Espana, a Reuters witness said.
Police said the 115 arrests across the country were linked to incidents during the strike. Those included blockades of offices and industrial parks.
The police response has opened a rift inside the government.
Sumar, the junior partner in Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist-led coalition, called on Thursday for Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska to resign. It said the police response was “excessive and disproportionate.”
Amnesty International said it had documented excessive force by police. It said officers hit peaceful protesters with batons and sprayed pepper spray into crowds without care.
Grande-Marlaska ordered investigations into the incidents on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said.
The two largest unions, the General Union of Workers and the Workers’ Commissions, said they would file a criminal complaint over one police operation.
They said tear gas and batons were used and that 20 protesters were hurt. The ministry did not reply right away to a request for comment.
The Tenants’ Union said the 3 million who marched included union workers, students, pensioners, tenants, self-employed people and people without jobs. All of them were protesting against rising rents and evictions.
The last general strike in Spain was in 2012, against spending cuts during the euro zone debt crisis. In 2018, a strike by women drew 5 million people, unions said at the time.
The unions called the strike a success, though support was uneven. It was strongest along the coast, where the pressure on housing is greatest. Unions said turnout hit 90% at ports and in the car industry.
In Madrid, protesters cheered on the Gran Via, one of the main shopping streets, as stores including Primark, H&M and Pull&Bear pulled down their shutters. Riot police stood by in large numbers. Protesters waved their house keys in the air as they moved along the street.
“We’re going to close the Mango store,” they chanted.
Public transport was hit too. Barcelona’s metro said no trains would run outside rush hours. Madrid’s metro said passenger numbers during peak hours were down 42% from the same time last week.
Still, the economic damage may be limited. Miguel Cardoso, chief economist at BBVA Research, said more people now work from home and that services account for a larger share of the economy. He estimated the strike could cut 0.1% to 0.2% from Spain’s yearly economic output.
Storms named Charles and Bruna also got in the way. Unions called off marches in the southern port city of Cadiz and other southern cities.
Housing has become one of the biggest issues in the election. Spain is short of about 750,000 homes, the Bank of Spain says, and the gap could top 1 million by 2028.
The strike followed weeks of protests sparked by the eviction and later death of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid. Those protests and parliament’s rejection last month of government plans to curb evictions and limit rents led Sanchez to call the early vote.
Sanchez hopes anger over housing will draw attention away from a deadly rush of migrants into Ceuta, Spain’s enclave in North Africa, and from a train crash last month. His government has defended the way it handled both. So far, his party still trails in the polls.
On the right, the conservative People’s Party and the far-right Vox party have joined forces ahead of the vote, according to reports.
The official election campaign begins on Friday.
