Fresh protests over housing are due to take place in Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday (October 3, 2026), a day after parliament rejected two government measures to strengthen protection for tenants.
After eight years in power, Mr. The government introduced the measures after nationwide protests following the eviction, on a stretcher, of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid apartment she had occupied for around seven decades. The defeat was another political setback for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and has renewed questions over whether his minority government can survive until the next scheduled general election in 2027.
Sanchez had the backing of “neither the streets nor parliament”, he added.
Average rents in Spain have almost doubled over the past decade, while asking prices for homes have risen by about 90 percent, according to real estate website Idealista. She was forced to leave the Madrid flat where she had lived after it was acquired by an investment company that sought to increase her rent by 275%, according to housing campaigners.
“There is an irreparable disconnect between what the people want and what the parties vote for,” it said in a statement.
