Nearly 3,000 people fill Palma's Cort square: "Maricarmen, you are not alone"

PalmaNearly 3,000 people filled the Plaça de Cort in Palma this Monday afternoon to demand measures against 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 has demanded that the decree be approved without modifications and that it incorporate measures which, 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 come with their dinner, a chair, and a table.

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

Martínez added that, depending on the result 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 spokesperson for the entity also directed his criticisms at the Balearic Government and the president of the Executive, Marga Prohens. Martínez considered that the regional government has “a lot of responsibility” in the housing situation in the Islands and pointed it out for its position regarding state measures on rent. Specifically, the spokesperson criticized that the Executive is holding back 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 homes intended 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 event 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.

Activists against real estate speculation camp at Plaça d'Espanya in Palma

About twenty people spent the night camping in eight tents set up in the center of the Plaza de España in Palma to defend the right to decent housing and demand measures against real estate speculation.

After midnight from Monday to Tuesday, upon the conclusion of the demonstration organized by the Mallorca Tenants' Union with the slogan 'Not one more Maricarmen! Until we conquer the right to housing', a group of activists decided to set up camp to spend the night in the central square of the Balearic capital in solidarity with the encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid.

National Police units were monitoring the campers early this Tuesday, who have set up their tents at the foot of the statue of King James I the Conqueror.

Pressure regarding the approval of the decree

The protest took place in the middle 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 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, organizations such as Stop Evictions have also joined the mobilization, which has turned the Plaça de Cort into a space of protest against the housing crisis.