Key facts
- UGT head Pepe Álvarez said the strike was a success with "massive" participation.
- CC OO's Unai Sordo said turnout was "very significant."
- The interior ministry said dozens of people were arrested for a variety of incidents.
- Spanish reports said estate agencies had seen attacks on their offices.
- A 50 sq m flat in Madrid averaged €1,170 a month in October, per property portal Idealista.
- Spain's average gross monthly salary is about €2,460, Idealista's comparison implies.
Spain's main unions called the country's first general strike in 14 years over housing and the high cost of living, and tens of thousands of people took part on Wednesday, the BBC reported. Some 120,000 people joined a demonstration in Madrid and more than 50,000 turned out in Barcelona, where masked men set fire to rubbish bins and smashed shop windows as police fired tear gas.
Transport and other public services across Spain faced serious disruption, and traffic halted on several main roads around Madrid and Barcelona earlier in the day. The interior ministry said dozens of people were arrested for a variety of incidents, and Spanish reports said estate agencies had seen attacks on their offices. Local media reported a group fired fireworks toward police and looted shops including the Lego store, and protesters were seen trying to enter the Apple Store.
UGT head Pepe Álvarez said the strike was a success with "massive" participation, while Unai Sordo of the CC OO union said turnout was "very significant." A protester in Madrid told Reuters the city had been brought to a standstill, and 37-year-old teacher Olga Domingo said the housing situation was outrageous and the cost of living compared with wages unsustainable.
The strike followed protests over affordable housing that were triggered by the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid flat where she had lived for seven decades; she died in hospital weeks later. Rental prices in the capital have risen in recent years: a 50 sq m apartment in Madrid averaged €1,170 a month in October, according to property portal Idealista, against an average gross monthly salary of about €2,460.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called snap elections last month after parliament failed to approve his housing reform plan, and Spaniards vote on November 29. Sánchez and his ministers encouraged workers to take part, while the conservative People's Party accused the government of attempting to weaponize the strike for electoral gain.