Spain PM vows action as housing protest sparked by Madrid eviction grows
AI generated
MADRID –
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protest → vow → eviction
A growing protest camp in the heart of Madrid over unaffordable housing pushed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Sept 27 to pledge swift government action.
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camp → grow → action
Hundreds of protesters on the weekend set up tents in the capital’s busy Puerta del Sol public square to press their demands.
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Hundreds → set → demands
The movement was triggered by a police eviction on Sept 23 of an 87-year-old woman from her lifelong Madrid apartment.
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movement → trigger → apartment
The woman, Maricarmen Abascal, was carried out on a stretcher after the police broke down her door, in a scene that caused widespread outrage.
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that → carry → outrage
Her plight tapped into long-simmering resentment in Spain’s major cities over spiralling costs to rent or buy homes.
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plight → tap → homes
Tens of thousands of protesters took to Madrid’s streets on Sept 26, rattling keys and blowing whistles.
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thousands → take → whistles
The authorities said 25,000 people took part, while the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which organised the protest, said over 300,000 turned out.
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300,000 → say → protest
Many then set up their tent camp in Puerta del Sol, vowing to stay until housing access is improved, or the government falls.
“We’ll stay as long as necessary.
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We → set → Sol
Even as we mobilise the pressure keeps mounting, and we’re already at our limits,” one 28-year-old protester, who gave his first name as Sergio, said in front of his tent.
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who → mobilise → tent
The housing problem in Spain has become a burning issue ahead of a general election due for 2027.
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problem → become → 2027
Sanchez, in a political rally organised on Sept 27 by his Socialist Party, addressed the evicted woman, saying: “Maricarmen, I have a message for you.
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I → organise → you
The government is working all out to present the law on housing.”
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government → work → housing
He urged other political parties to back the Bill, which is expected to contain measures such as the automatic renewal of rental contracts and further restrictions on evictions.
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which → urge → evictions
But Sanchez’s party lacks a majority in Spain’s Parliament, where it is unclear whether the package would be approved.
uncertain
package → lack → Parliament
A similar Bill was defeated earlier in 2026.
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Bill → defeat → 2026
The Madrid Tenants’ Union urged on X for city residents to join the Puerta del Sol protest.
“We can’t take any more.
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We → urge → more
Either the rental system falls, or the government falls,” it said.
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it → fall → ?
Abascal was forced to leave the apartment where she had lived for 70 years after a real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275 per cent to €2,650 (S$3,858), according to the union.
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firm → force → union
Now a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis, she urged Spaniards to join the protest on Sept 26 in a video message posted online just hours before it got under way.
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it → urge → way
“I want what has happened to me to serve so that it does not happen to other people,” she said from hospital, where she has been treated for exhaustion since her eviction.
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she → want → eviction
“I want it to encourage people to fight and to help change the laws that have allowed me to be evicted,” she added in the video, posted by the tenants’ union.
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she → want → union
Many who took part in the street demonstration said that the rental market had become impossible.
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market → take → demonstration
A Madrid real-estate site, Idealista, estimates that rent has nearly doubled in the past decade.
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rent → estimate → decade
“It is a struggle to find a place you can afford, then you live in fear of being forced out,” demonstrator Enrique Ortega de Miguel, a 38-year-old graphic designer who lives with his mother, told AFP.
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who → find → AFP
Puerta del Sol – a busy hub intensively used by commuters and tourists – has been the venue for past protests.
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Sol → use → protests
In 2011, young demonstrators railing against poor economic conditions and corruption occupied it for three weeks.
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demonstrators → rail → weeks
The Bank of Spain estimates the country of around 50 million people is short of 700,000 homes, based on the gap between demand and new construction.
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country → estimate → demand
Spain has little public housing, while rents have been driven up by increased demand, including from tourism and population growth linked to immigration, analysts say.
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analysts → have → immigration
The Aporia
