‘I pay $500 for 5 square metres’: Spain’s protesters, in their own words

Young people are trapped in the family home or forced to pay high rents for cramped accommodation, at the mercy of landlords. Tens of thousands of young people have protested across Spain in recent weeks, rallying against the country’s acute housing crisis. On Wednesday, many have gone on strike, heeding calls by Spain’s biggest unions for a nationwide walkout under the slogan: “Salarios, vivienda y precios” – or “wages, housing, and prices”.

Anger grew last month after the forcible eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the Madrid flat where she had lived for the past seven decades. Her corporate landlord had raised the rent to a level above her means. As the public outcry worsened, she died in hospital the day the property owners who had evicted her agreed to allow her to return to her home.

To protect vulnerable renters, the government presented two emergency decrees to parliament, but these were defeated by right-wing parties.