Spanish workers strike over rents and wages as housing costs fuel anger ahead of November 29 election

On Wednesday, workers in Spain's biggest cities filled the streets in the country's first general strike in 14 years. In Madrid they jammed the main thoroughfare and marched through the central shopping district carrying banners about salaries, housing and prices. Those are the three issues likely to decide the general election on November 29.

The union action shut down or scaled back services across the country, with mass rallies in every major city. Unions estimated that 4 million workers took part, which would be close to 8 per cent of the population. Police gave their own figures for two cities: 120,000 people in Madrid and more than 50,000 in Barcelona.

The grievance is a decade old. Consumer prices and rents have outpaced wages across Spain, and house values have surged because new properties are scarce, putting ownership further out of reach for young people. Figures from the National Statistics Institute, cited by Euronews, show house prices rose 84.6 per cent over the decade to 2025, while average wages rose 27.9 per cent.

Rebeca Castaño, who teaches at an infants' school, marched with her colleagues in Madrid. She said some of her pupils live in homes where four or five family members share one bedroom because housing is so expensive. She wants the government to cap prices, spend more on social housing and pass a law against tourist flats, since in the city centre, she said, all the flats are being used for tourists. Public opinion leans her way: a recent survey found 79.2 per cent of voters believe vacation rentals contribute "a lot or quite a bit" to higher rents.

Maribel Moreno, an office worker at the Madrid Metro, said housing was becoming "impossible" and that public services were suffering from underinvestment. The marchers, she said, were there for more than pay: for housing, education and healthcare. A young woman held a sign reading "We are not slaves. We want to live, not just survive. Our rights must be defended," and said the government should freeze prices so young people can afford homes.

The housing anger has a face. In September a property company evicted Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old disabled pensioner, from her apartment, and she died in hospital weeks later. Known across Spain simply as Maricarmen, she became a focus of outrage, and the protests led the government to promise limits on rent increases. Ordinary households, though, are still living with a decade of upward pressure on housing and other costs.

The day was largely peaceful until the evening. In Madrid, tension between police and protesters lasted several hours under heavy rain, which limited the chances for agitators to start fires with overturned bins and spread rubbish. In Barcelona, riot police dispersed the crowd late on Wednesday night with pepper spray and tear gas as some protesters threw objects. Masked protesters set rubbish bins alight and smashed shop windows around the Paseo de Gracia boulevard, popular with shoppers and tourists. Police made dozens of arrests.

Cost-of-living frustration has spread across Europe, fuelling protests in Portugal, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany in recent months. Attention has centred on riots and looting in France, though similar clashes have occurred on a smaller scale in Belgium and Italy.

The politics are shifting. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the Socialist leader in power since 2018, trails the conservative People's Party led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whom he beat in 2023. The latest Sociometrica survey found a net transfer of 832,000 voters from left to right since its previous poll. With the vote on November 29, the question is whether the strike's anger moves votes toward the government's promises or away from it.