Tenant union leader urges nationwide housing strike after parliament rejects rent reforms

After a week of protests that included a camp at Puerta del Sol and the high-profile eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, the housing movement entered a new phase. Two government-proposed housing decrees were rejected in Congress, losing 178-172 and 184-166. Valeria Racu, the voice of the Sindicato de Inquilinas, says the defeat only reinforces the need for a general housing strike, which is being organized with other unions but has no fixed date yet.

She blames the PSOE and conservative parties for prioritising investors and rent-seeking landlords, labeling rentism a societal cancer. The union demands a 50% reduction in rent prices, the seizure of investment-fund holdings in housing, indefinite contracts, and an end to evictions, while also criticizing the handling of migrant issues in Ceuta. Racu stresses that politics belongs to the streets and that only a historic nationwide strike can force the changes they seek.