Wohnungspolitik: Landesweit Demos gegen Wohnungsnot in Spanien

In Spain, thousands of people are protesting against the housing crisis in the country, with demonstrations taking place in several cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. According to the Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, protests are planned for over 50 cities on Saturday. Valeria Racu, spokesperson for the Madrid tenant association, stated, "Power is back on the streets." She added that the demonstrations are a warning and that they will not tolerate four more years without addressing the problem.

The leftist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez failed to pass two decrees aimed at tackling rising rents and evictions in the parliament due to resistance from conservative and right-wing populist lawmakers. In recent days, protests involving tens of thousands of people across the country have taken place, including a controversial eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid.

The failure of the two decrees has put the Sánchez government in a deep crisis, making it hard to push initiatives through parliament since the conservative Catalan separatist party Junts withdrew their support from the government nearly a year ago, leaving Sanchez with seven fewer lawmakers. Speculations about early elections are now circulating, with the El Pais newspaper reporting that Sanchez himself wants to assess the extent of public discontent following the failure of the decrees and decide whether to call for early elections on Saturday.