Tens of thousands of people have rallied across Spain as protests have spread since the conservative-dominated parliament rejected a bill proposing measures to tackle a housing crisis.
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parliament → rally → crisis
Parliament on Friday voted down two decrees proposed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority left-wing coalition government that were intended to address the housing crisis.
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that → vote → crisis
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thousands → reject → reforms
The protests erupted late last month after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from her home of 70 years in the capital, Madrid.
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woman → erupt → capital
Maria del Carmen Abascal’s eviction came after an international investment fund bought her building and hiked the rent.
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fund → come → rent
Local media reports have suggested that Sanchez could call snap elections for as early as November after watching the strength of Saturday’s protests across the country.
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Sanchez → suggest → country
Spain’s current legislative term is set to end next summer.
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term → set → ?
Will the housing crisis trigger snap elections?
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crisis → trigger → elections
Here’s what we know:
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we → ’ → what
What happened on Friday in parliament?
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What → happen → parliament
The emergency measures proposed by Spain’s leftist government to tackle the country’s housing affordability crisis failed to pass on Friday.
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measures → propose → Friday
The government had proposed two measures to protect renters in the country.
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government → propose → country
The first decree was meant to stop evictions of vulnerable people, make real estate speculation harder, impose tighter restrictions on short-term leases and provide tax incentives to encourage renting and the construction of housing.
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speculation → mean → housing
The second decree proposed making leases automatically renew when they are set to expire, essentially making them indefinite.
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them → propose → ?
A property owner would have to pay a tenant 12 months of rent to break the contract.
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owner → have → contract
Sanchez, who leads a coalition government composed of his Socialist Party and the far-left Sumar, appealed to lawmakers in the run-up to the vote to put aside political calculations and pressure.
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who → lead → calculations
“Think about ordinary people, about those who most need the protection of public institutions.
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who → think → institutions
Think about the millions of young people who cannot afford to move out of their parents’ homes.
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who → think → homes
Think about the families living with the constant anxiety of ever-rising rents,” he said before the voting.
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he → think → voting
But his government’s proposed measures were shot down by the majority of the 350-seat lower house of parliament.
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measures → propose → parliament
The right-wing Catalan separatist party Junts refused to back the housing decrees, saying they would ultimately tighten the housing market.
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they → refuse → market
The centre-right Popular Party and far-right Vox also voted against the measures.
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Party → vote → measures
Miriam Nogueras of Junts argued the decrees would lead only to owners removing their properties from the rental market and thus driving up prices even further.
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owners → argue → prices
“If they really wanted to protect people, collar the vulture funds, and reactivate housing, they would have already done it.
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they → want → it
They’ve had eight years,” she added on X, referring to Sanchez’s government.
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she → have → government
Health Minister Monica Garcia said on X that the right-wing parties “have voted for a feudal economy in which a minority extracts the salary from a majority that works for their luxuries.
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that → say → luxuries
And they do it against their own voters, who also suffer increasingly high rents, live in fear that the contract will end and can even be evicted.
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contract → do → fear
“Today the right has given rent-seeking a parliamentary majority that it doesn’t have on the street, but it’s going to pay for it sooner rather than later,” she added.
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she → give → it
Before the parliamentary vote, Marta Soler Gallart, head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Barcelona, explained that neither of the two decrees addressed the housing problem in the medium or long term.
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neither → explain → term
“Models such as Vienna’s with its low rents are cited in support of these decrees, but it is overlooked that the Vienna model and others have low rents because of their long history of creating and maintaining public social housing,” Soler Gallart told Al Jazeera on September 30.
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Gallart → cite → September
“In Spain, however, public funds are invested in social housing which, after a while, the recipients sell at market price.”
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recipients → invest → price
Soler Gallart also said the new measures disadvantage landlords with small or few properties by extending five-year tenancy agreements by a further two years and by providing an indefinite extension of their leases.
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measures → say → leases
“However, these extensions are not compulsory if the landlord can prove that they need the property for their own use,” she said.
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she → prove → use
Why are people protesting across Spain?
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people → protest → Spain
Protests erupted across Spain in late September after 87-year-old Abascal was evicted from her home.
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Abascal → erupt → home
The investment fund that bought her building hiked her rent by more than 200 percent to roughly $1,880 a month, a move aimed at pushing out the long-term tenant to make way for lucrative tourist apartments.
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that → buy → apartments
In recent years, Spain has seen protests against mass tourism, which has been linked to the housing crisis and soaring cost of living.
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which → see → living
Spain is the second most visited country in the world, attracting 97 million tourists last year.
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Spain → visit → tourists
While Abascal has returned to her home, according to her representatives, she has become the face of the country’s housing crisis, and people across Spain have been demanding the government address the issue.
Angered by parliament’s rejection of the government measures, tens of thousands of people took to the streets.
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thousands → return → streets
“It’s a shame,” Nando de Anguulo, 26, who joined Saturday’s protest in Madrid, told the Reuters news agency.
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who → ’ → agency
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
