Spain's first general strike in 14 years over housing crisis

Millions walk out over housing

Around four million workers, about seventeen percent of Spain's workforce, staged a general strike on November eleventh to protest the country's housing crisis.

First strike in fourteen years

The last nationwide general strike was in two thousand twelve, when workers protested austerity spending cuts and labour market reforms during the Eurozone debt crisis.

Unions and tenants organised action

Spain's two largest unions, the General Union of Workers and the Workers' Commissions, organised the strike alongside tenants' associations and other unions.

Protests across major cities

Hundreds of thousands took to streets in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia on Wednesday demanding measures to bring down rental prices across the country.

Election looms weeks away

The strike comes weeks before Spain's November twenty-ninth national election, where rising rents and cost of living have become defining issues for voters.

Government backs the walkout

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government declared support for the strike, hoping to benefit electorally from resentment over the opposition's block on housing measures.

“Every right that workers in this country enjoy was won through struggle and strikes.”

Employers dispute turnout numbers

Unions claimed four million participated and expected five million by day's end. Spain's main employers' confederation estimated less than five percent of workers joined.

Disruption and violence reported

Police reported at least seventy-five arrests and one thousand forty-four incidents linked to the strike. In Barcelona, protesters smashed shop windows and burned rubbish containers.

Opposition attacks Sánchez

Conservative and far-right opposition parties accused Sánchez of stoking the strike for electoral gain, calling it a campaign tool rather than genuine labour action.

“This is an electoral strike.”

Housing crisis sparked by eviction

An eighty-seven-year-old tenant, Maricarmen Abascal, died two weeks after eviction in September when her landlord sought to raise rent fivefold, sparking mass protests.

Rents far outpace wage growth

Rents increased eighty-seven percent between two thousand fifteen and two thousand twenty-five, while wages rose around thirty percent. Average monthly rent is one thousand one hundred seventy-six euros.

Young people delayed independence

The average age for moving out of parents' homes is now thirty point two years. Youth emancipation rate has fallen to a record low of fourteen point five percent.