Spain's two largest unions, the General Workers' Union (UGT) and the Workers' Commissions (CCOO), have announced plans for a nationwide general strike on Nov. 11 to protest the housing crisis. It would be the first general strike backed jointly by the country's two biggest unions in 14 years.
According to the announcement, the strike date still needs to be ratified by other unions at a meeting later on Wednesday. The action comes just weeks before a snap election on Nov. 29, when soaring rents and evictions have become central campaign issues.
Valeria Racu, a spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants' Union, said: "We cannot ignore that rent takes up most of our wages. What is the point of raising the minimum wage when housing costs are rising three, four or five times faster?"
According to the Bank of Spain, the country is short some 750,000 homes, a figure expected to rise above one million by 2028. Data from the Spanish Youth Council shows the average rent of 1,176 euros (about $1,315) equals roughly 98.7% of a young person's average monthly salary in Spain.
The general strike decision followed weeks of protests that began with the eviction of 87-year-old Maria del Carmen Abascal, known nationwide as Maricarmen, from her home in Madrid. She has become a symbol of the growing housing crisis. An international investment fund bought the building where she lived and raised her rent by more than 200%, to about $1,880 a month, in a bid to push out long-term tenants and make way for lucrative tourist flats.
After the eviction, the Madrid Tenants' Union organized protests and set up tents in the Puerta del Sol square in central Madrid, drawing tens of thousands of participants before spreading to dozens of other cities.
Alongside the protests, the Spanish government's failure last week to pass emergency measures to address the crisis prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call a snap election for Nov. 29.
Sanchez's main rival, conservative People's Party (PP) leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, is seeking a chance to form a government, while far-right Vox leader Santiago Abascal is positioning his party as a potential kingmaker.
The 54-year-old prime minister, in power since 2018, enters the election with opinion polls consistently showing him behind Feijoo. The conservative leader suffered a major setback when his party came first in the 2023 general election but failed to win enough support from other parties to form a government.
Polls suggest Feijoo will not win an absolute majority, meaning he would need Vox's support to govern.
