Tens of thousands of people took to the street in 40 cities across Spain, including the capital city of Mardrid on Saturday to protest against high housing costs, crying out for decent and affordable housing.
Many in Spain are being priced out of the housing market amid rising rental costs and soaring property prices. Unable to buy or rent, the residents held mass demonstrations to reinforce their right to a home.
Besides Madrid, protesters also marched in Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga and other cities, under the slogan “Stop using our homes for your business.”
“I’m actually very angry. I belong to a housing union which fights this problem every day, not only for young people, but for the whole population of Spain, in which paying rent is a very big struggle,” said a protester.
“I spend more than half of my salary in housing, right? For my friends, it’s exactly the same. We’re realizing it. Every year, our rent increases because it’s allowed, and every five or seven years when the contract finishes, rent goes up to whatever the landlord desires. And that cannot be so. Next year my contract is up, and I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said another.
Rent prices have skyrocketed by 80 percent over the past decade, exacerbated by record tourist numbers and the rise of short-term rental platforms like AirBnB.
The Spanish government has made the issue a priority with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowing continued efforts to ensure that people’s constitutional right to housing become a reality.
However, the protesters said that promises are not enough, demanding much more radical and immediate measures, including an end to property speculation, more public housing, an immediate drop in rents, and calling for the revamping of the more than 3.8 million empty homes in Spain.
They threatened to stop paying their rent en masse and want eviction companies to be outlawed and vulnerable families to be protected. With house prices projected to rise a further 10 percent this year, they said this protest movement will not be silenced.
Protests sweep across Spain against high housing costs
U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25-percent car tariffs, which took effect on Thursday, have spurred confusion and concern in Canada’s automotive capital of Windsor.
As the latest duties came into force, carmaker Stellantis, which owns marques including Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge, confirmed it will shut down its assembly plant in the Canadian border city of Windsor for two weeks starting April 7.
Fear and anxiety are running high among Stellantis workers.
“It’s hard to comprehend at first and then it’s hard to see where things are going to go from here. I think that everyone is hoping that it won’t be long, but I have a feeling that it could be years,” said a worker.
“Little nervous to be honest. Right now, with the way things are going over in the United States, it definitely affects us and if we’re not selling cars, we’re not going to have a job,” another worker said.
Stellantis also announced it would pause production at a plant in Mexico, and temporarily lay off some 900 workers in Midwestern states of Michigan and Indiana.
Experts warn that the tariffs will be likely to severely disrupt global supply chains and lead to production cutbacks and layoffs if they remain in place for any length of time.
“If vehicle sales stall, manufacturing will stop. The car companies will not keep building cars if they can’t sell them. They just can’t do that, and they won’t. So if they’re not building cars, they will lay the workers off. This will snowball through the entire economy of the globe,” said Peter Frise, a professor of automotive engineering at the University of Windsor.
On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada will be responding by matching the U.S. approach with 25-percent tariffs on all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
Canadian auto workers on edge following US tariffs