Burning bins in Barcelona: Spain's housing revolt turns violent as tens of thousands march

A mass housing protest in Barcelona turned violent on October 6, with running clashes, fires, barricades and tear gas, as Spain's revolt against soaring rents and evictions entered a more dangerous phase. Protesters set fires, built barricades and hurled projectiles, and police responded with charges in scenes that recalled the darkest days of the country's street confrontations. Thousands of people had marched peacefully through central Barcelona earlier in the evening, calling for a national general strike to demand immediate action on evictions and soaring rents. The country's major unions, CCOO and UGT, have agreed in principle to call a 24-hour autumn strike, though they have yet to set a date or decide its form. The demonstration was peaceful for most of the evening but turned disorderly around 10 p.m., when a minority set fires to bins and police made charges. Tens of thousands more marched across Spain, with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets in several cities. The march coincided with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announcing snap elections for November 29, after his housing decrees failed in Congress. Protesters say the announcement only increases pressure on parties to act. Plans to protect renters were struck down after the Catalan separatist party Junts joined opposition lawmakers in voting against them. The spark for the movement remains the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, a wheelchair user forced out of the Madrid flat where she had lived for decades, given just 30 minutes to gather her essential belongings. Televised images showed her being carried from the property on a stretcher after police cordoned off the street; she was taken to hospital and has yet to be discharged. The flat, in Madrid's affluent Retiro neighbourhood, had been acquired by an investment fund that wanted to sharply increase the rent. From her hospital bed she said: 'I haven't managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others can learn to fight for what's theirs.' About a thousand protesters have spent the past week camped in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, and another protest camp has sprung up in Barcelona's Placa Catalunya, with demonstrators vowing not to budge until politicians take tougher action to protect renters. They carry signs declaring 'not even one more Maricarmen'. Government figures show 26 per cent of Spanish renters spend an average of 40 per cent of their income on rent and utilities, in a country where rents have nearly doubled in a decade and home prices have risen 90 per cent. The clashes came three days after marches swept more than 50 Spanish cities. The movement's demands are no longer just about one eviction; they are about who Spanish cities are for. Parliament and the courts have failed the renters. The streets, it seems, will not wait.