This weekend marks the start of a new round of protests in defense of the right to housing, driven by local federations of the Tenants' Union and various social organizations, with the aim of demanding decent and affordable housing for the entire population.
The first gatherings will take place this Saturday, May 23, in Guadalajara, and will resume on Sunday with marches in Badajoz, Madrid, Teruel, and Zaragoza.
The calendar of actions, which will last until June 28, will continue on May 30 in Murcia, Burgos, and Logroño; on June 5 in Vigo; and on June 6 in A Coruña, Alicante, Ávila, Catalonia, Cantabria, Ourense, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Valencia, and Gijón. The next dates will be June 21 in Salamanca, June 27 in Cádiz and Málaga, and finally, June 28 in Gran Canaria.
The organizing entities call for people to take to the streets under the slogan "Housing costs us our lives. Let's lower prices."
At the same time, the CCOO and UGT unions have asked citizens to join these mobilizations en masse and to "fill the streets."
The general secretaries of CCOO and UGT, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, respectively, plan to attend the demonstration in Madrid, accompanied by the general secretaries of both organizations in the capital, Paloma López and Susana Huertas.
In a joint statement, the trade union confederations emphasize that access to housing has become one of the main drivers of inequality and social exclusion, with a particular impact on the working class.
Therefore, they consider it crucial to set caps on rental prices so that they do not exceed 30% of each household's income and to address changes in the mortgage market, in the current scenario of rising interest rates, in order to guarantee the same limit on installments.
"The root of the problem lies in the lack of a sufficient public housing stock. Spain has a historical deficit, caused by decades of policies that have placed housing at the service of the market and speculation. This must be corrected through a determined commitment to expanding public housing, guaranteeing affordable prices and permanent protection," they state in a joint communiqué.
Furthermore, they warn that the rental market remains highly strained and out of reach for broad social sectors, while housing is conceived as a "speculative asset" and not as a right, "another pillar of the welfare state."
Along these lines, they describe the regulation of the activity of investment funds and large holders as "urgent," "who operate as speculative agents, straining prices and expelling the population from their neighborhoods," in order to curb "abusive practices that undermine the general interest."