Massive demonstration in Barcelona for the right to housing. In the absence of an official count, thousands of people, summoned by the Tenants’ Union under the slogan “it’s over, let’s lower the rents”, have been protesting since after 5:00 p.m. through the center of the city. In addition to columns arriving from more than ten neighborhoods, organized protesters from towns and cities throughout Catalonia have come to the capital in a sign that the housing problem goes beyond the Barcelona conurbation.
The protesters march through the streets of Barcelona to endorse the demands of the Tenants’ Union: a 50% reduction in rents, indefinite contracts to end the “insecurity” of tenants, recover empty, tourist and rental apartments for residential use. seasonal rental and impose high taxes on rentiers who are multi-owners of homes.
In addition, he has called on tenants to organize to “walk towards a rent strike.”
In the march there are many young people with problems becoming independent. This is the case of Sergi, Adri and Joan, three friends from Castelldefels (Barcelona), who remain at their parents’ house although they work because they cannot find an affordable apartment in their municipality. “My parents’ neighbors pay 1,600 euros in rent. I can’t face this alone,” Adri laments.
More veteran assistants also express concern about what will happen when their contract runs out. “I still have a few years left, but I’m already afraid of ending up like my sister, whose landlord hasn’t extended the rent because she wants to rent a seasonal rental,” laments this Poble-sec resident, who criticizes that his neighborhood “is has made it impossible for tourist apartments.”
A month after the massive demonstration in Madrid, the Barcelona march takes over the protest against the increase in rental prices, which are increasingly unaffordable for many working families. Housing is one of the announced priorities of the Salvador Illa Government, but medium and long-term public policies contrast with the urgency of many families.
In the Catalan capital, the average rental price is 1,132 euros per month, 70% more than a decade ago, according to official data. Salaries are far from this increase, which has expelled several Barcelonans from the city where they were born and would like to live. To the cocktail we must add the increase in seasonal and room rentals, the route of several owners to escape price regulation.
In statements to the press, the spokesperson for the Tenants Union, Carme Arcarazo, called for the demonstration to be a “turning point.” And it has targeted landlords whose way of life is collecting rent. “Enough of the rentiers who are getting richer while we are poorer,” he proclaimed, and then addressed the socialist party: “Enough of cosmetic policies, they are about real policies and not excuses for competition, because there are a party that governs in Madrid, Barcelona and Catalonia.”
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