The Delegation of the Government in Madrid has estimated at 120,000 the people who this Thursday, November 11, took part in the demonstration held in the capital on the occasion of the general strike to demand a more dignified access to housing and an improvement in wages. For its part, the Sindicato de Inquilinas, one of the groups that promoted the protest, has raised attendance to 600,000 people.
This call represents the first general strike promoted by CCOO and UGT since 2012 and also the first one carried out under the term of Pedro Sánchez as president of the Government.
The march, organized under the slogan "Wages. Housing. Prices", started on time at 6:00 p.m. at Atocha, under intense rain, and ended in Plaza de España. The route was carried out normally and without notable incidents, according to the authorities.
Along the way, attendees paid tribute to Maricarmen and chanted slogans against rent-seeking, calling on the political class for concrete measures to guarantee the right to housing. The criticism was directed especially at the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor of the city, José Luis Martínez Almeida.
Among the most repeated chants, slogans already common in housing protests could be heard, such as "what’s happening, what’s happening, that we don’t have a house", "here are the antifascists" or "long live the struggle of the working class".
During the protest, calls were also made to promote a rent strike, with messages such as "To the rent-seekers we want to ask you how long you can hold out once we stop paying you everything".
In the demonstration, numerous banners were displayed with silhouettes of houses to denounce the high cost of housing, along with others that called for "feminist neighborhoods against funds and rent-seekers" and that defended pensions and public school.