Madrid (AFP) – Huge housing demonstrations brought together tens of thousands of people in Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday, after parliament rejected measures from Pedro Sanchez's government, which could call early elections to end the crisis.

Published on: 03/10/2026 - 2:58 p.m. Modified on: 03/10/2026 - 11:18 p.m.

In Madrid, where for a week a camp has brought together around a hundred activists in a very touristy square, several processions, marching behind a large banner "Towards the general strike", have converged in the direction of another large square in the city center. Some 70,000 people, according to the authorities, 500,000, according to the tenants' union, marched in the capital.

“What is being breathed in the streets is a new energy (...), an energy which demonstrates that eight days of popular power are capable of doing much more than eight years of progressive government,” declared Valeria Racu, one of the spokespersons for the tenants' union at the origin of the movement, in a statement sent to the press.

Dozens of far-right activists, making the Nazi salute, gathered in the evening in the center of Madrid, where some tried to reach the famous Puerta del Sol where activists for the right to housing have been camped for a week, noted AFP journalists and local media.

Police were deployed in force to keep the two groups separated.

“A fundamental right”

On Saturday, hundreds of people also marched in other cities such as Palma de Mallorca, Santander, Segovia and Toledo, while in Barcelona the demonstration was suspended due to a storm.

That of Valencia ended with clashes between some demonstrators and the police, nine officers of whom were slightly injured, while five people were arrested, according to the local press.

In the Madrid demonstration, a bookseller, Marcos Sainz, 26, explained to AFP that he previously lived in a shared apartment with three friends in a three-room apartment for a rent of 900 euros. He recently moved into a two-room apartment for 1,000 euros. “I feel privileged because I can afford it.”

But he will continue to protest, he says, "until someone dares to regulate" the market. Otherwise “we will all have to leave Madrid and that pains me, because I am from Madrid”.

“We are demanding a fundamental right: to have decent housing, stability and conditions that allow us to build a dignified life project,” says Javier, 31, an installer of photovoltaic panels who did not wish to give his name.

“I live in a 90 m2 apartment with three other people,” he explains. “I spend, like most of us, half my salary on a tiny room.”

"Here, we can clearly see that we are the majority, and that the problems that affect the majority do not seem to concern our 'representatives', in quotes," he criticizes.

This mobilization was born around ten days ago after the eviction of an octogenarian from her Madrid apartment, who had become the symbol of the housing crisis which has been hitting Spain for several years.

“Real politics”

“It is now that real politics begins, the politics that has always belonged to the people and which is returning once and for all to the streets,” said Valeria Racu.

The rejection of government texts, which notably provided for suspending evictions of vulnerable people until 2030, measures against so-called "vulture" funds, or the automatic renewal of leases, has rekindled questions about the end of the legislature, scheduled for 2027.

According to the Spanish press, the Prime Minister has given himself a few days to call, or not, possible early elections.

The leader of the right-wing opposition, Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, called on Saturday Pedro Sanchez to stop “pretending” with the vote and to call it “because (the) country can no longer take it”.

As in many European capitals, the lack of affordable housing is one of the main social problems in Spain, where tourism platforms like Airbnb and investment funds are accused of driving up prices by buying up real estate and reducing supply for residents.

© 2026 AFP

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