Close to 3,000 people fill the Plaza de Cort in Palma: "Maricarmen, you are not alone"

PalmaAlmost 3,000 people filled the Plaça de Cort in Palma this Monday afternoon to demand measures regarding the housing crisis and to call for the approval of what is known as the Maricarmen decree.

The mobilization, convened by the Mallorca Tenants' Union, is part of a day of protests promoted by tenants' unions across the country following the eviction in Madrid of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman who had to leave the home where she had lived for more than seven decades.

The protest in Palma demanded that the decree be approved without modifications and that it incorporate measures that, according to the union, allow for an effective response to the housing emergency situation. The organization had already called for a symbolic occupation of the Plaça de Cort, with the message 'may there not be one more Maricarmen' and with the proposal that participants bring their dinner, a chair, and a table.

The spokesperson for the Mallorca Tenants' Union, Òscar Martínez, pointed out that the organization does not foresee "any other way out" than the approval of the full decree without "any window dressing." "We will not settle for just anything," they warned. In this sense, they demand measures such as indefinite contracts, rent freezes, reforming the law to eliminate the abuse of room rentals, and implementing anti-eviction measures, among others.

Martínez added that, depending on the outcome of the decree's processing, the union will maintain the mobilizations. “We will continue the mobilizations until they listen to us,” he assured.

Criticism of the Balearic Government

In statements to ARA Balears, the organization's spokesperson also directed his criticisms at the Balearic Government and the President of the Executive, Marga Prohens. Martínez considered that the autonomous government has "a lot of responsibility" for the housing situation in the Islands and pointed it out for its position regarding state measures on rent. Specifically, the spokesperson criticized the Executive for holding back the state regulations that would allow, among other things, limiting the increase in rental prices in the Balearics, since it is one of the most strained areas in the entire State.

The Union has also held the Government responsible for the increase in housing destined for vacation rentals and has focused on seasonal rentals, which, as Martínez has denounced, “are also being used in many cases fraudulently and are not being pursued”. The union’s criticisms coincide with a state-wide mobilization that demands, among other measures, more protection against evictions, regulation of seasonal rentals, and mechanisms to prevent temporary contracts from being used to bypass the guarantees of regular rentals. The call concluded with a collective dinner in the same square, just as sources from the organization had proposed. Thus, some of those who participated in the call took out their lunchboxes and food to have dinner and sat on the ground forming small groups.

Pressure regarding the approval of the decree

The protest took place in the midst of negotiations to approve a new royal decree-law on housing. The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, has announced that the Executive is working to bring the regulation to the Council of Ministers this Tuesday and has asked the parliamentary groups to facilitate its subsequent validation in Congress.

The national Tenants' Union has warned that the decree must incorporate the five points defended by the movement and has demanded its immediate approval. In Palma, entities such as Stop Evictions have also joined the mobilization, which has turned the Plaça de Cort into a space for protest against the housing crisis.