Spain's Young Renters Speak Out as Housing Crisis Fuels Strikes and a Snap Election

On Wednesday, many of the young people who have spent recent weeks marching through Spanish cities stopped work altogether. Spain's largest unions called a nationwide walkout under the slogan "Salarios, vivienda y precios": wages, housing and prices. Tens of thousands had already protested, and the strike was meant to turn that anger into pressure on politicians.

The protests grew sharply last month after the forcible eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, from the Madrid flat where she had lived for seven decades. Her corporate landlord had raised the rent beyond what she could pay. As public outrage built, the owners who had evicted her agreed to let her return. She died in hospital the same day.

The government has tried to respond. It put two emergency decrees to parliament to protect vulnerable renters, but right-wing parties defeated both. The left-wing coalition then called a snap election for November 29. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a Socialist, had been trailing the conservative People's Party and the far-right Vox in the polls, and the coalition hopes anger over housing will help rally voters. The Bank of Spain says the country is short of 750,000 homes, and that the gap could reach 1 million by next year.

Al Jazeera spoke to several protesters, and their circumstances show how the numbers play out. Haris Javaid Sharif, 24, a data analyst in Barcelona, earns $1,900 a month net. He still lives with his parents, brother and sister in a 44-square-metre rented flat that costs the family $745, half of which he pays. A three-bedroom flat in the city averages between $954 and $1,684. After the pandemic, he says, the family was evicted for owing five months of rent, because he and his father could not work. They had gathered 2,500 euros, about $2,800, but the owner would not negotiate. They then went 11 months without work and lived in two-room accommodation. He had thought such things happened only to vulnerable people, he says, but it can happen to anyone.

In Madrid, Bea Garcia de la Torre, 32, works for a foundation and earns $2,400 a month. She shares a 70-square-metre flat with her brother, and they pay $1,229 in rent. She counts herself as not in the worst position, since some people pay half their wages in rent. Still, the landlord is trying to make them pay for central heating, which she says the building's community should cover, and they fear he could raise the rent sharply or force them out. She sees the strike as a chance to change housing policy, as a similar action once won the eight-hour day.

Iratxe Gonzalez, 27, a social worker, earns $1,200 a month and shares a 45-square-metre Madrid flat with three others. She pays $400 in rent. They hold only a one-year contract, which she calls insecure, since the landlord could raise the rent or simply get rid of them.

Ignacio Redrado, a 32-year-old teacher, could afford to leave home only at 26. He earns $2,245 and pays $337 a month. He shares a 60-square-metre Madrid flat with four others, and together they pay $1,067. Madrid has Spain's highest rents, with a flat for four averaging between $2,500 and $6,737. He notes that the average age of leaving home in Spain is 30. He says the strike is not about this government and that people want indefinite rental contracts and more social housing.

Arturo Leon, 24, works with an NGO and hopes to study for a doctorate in housing justice. He pays $506 a month to share a small Barcelona flat with four others. They have no contract, and the landlord refuses to repair broken things. His bedroom measures two metres by 2.6, yet the landlord is threatening to raise the rent.

The strike now runs alongside the campaign for the November 29 vote, and the question is whether housing, left unresolved by parliament, will be settled at the ballot box.