The activists of the housing encampment will return to Plaça d'Espanya after the 11-N strike

PalmaThe housing campers will return to Palma's Plaça d'Espanya after the general strike called for this Wednesday, November 11. This was announced by representatives of the collective this Tuesday during the Palma City Council plenary session, one week after the eviction of the protest by the Local Police. "Right now we are focusing all our strength on the strike and on the fact that people organize themselves to exert pressure in the claim for housing as a basic right. After having managed to call this strike, our plan is to return to camping," explained Clara Santano, one of the participants in the camp, to the media.

The collective considers that last Wednesday's eviction constituted a violation of the right of assembly and accuses the Local Police of having intervened without authorization. Santano has pointed out several episodes that, according to his version, evidence this violation: the impossibility of recovering belongings, the destruction of the public library they had organized autonomously, and the police attempt to prevent them from continuing the protest sitting on the ground, without tents or barriers.

"The right of assembly was violated, because we were not allowed to recover our belongings. Also when the Emaya workers confirmed to us that the public library we had managed had been burned or destroyed", he denounced. Furthermore, he assured that, when they tried to resume the protest without facilities, the Local Police also tried to prevent them from sitting on the ground. The campers have pointed directly at the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, whom they have accused of carrying out an especially serious attack against the right to protest. According to the collective, he is the only mayor in the State who "has dared to carry out such a clear attack" against a mobilization of these characteristics.

They have also criticized the police presence during the days the encampment lasted and have denounced that the agents, who according to them were monitoring them constantly, disappeared when they received threats following the Blocus call. During the municipal plenary session, a representative of the collective took advantage of the intervention to call for participation in this Wednesday's general strike and to support the demands to guarantee access to housing. "Housing has ceased to fulfill a social function to become a mechanism of accumulation", he stated.

In this sense, he denounced that the current model prioritizes real estate profitability over the right to live on the island. "More profitability for a few and more insecurity for the majority. This is the disease, not the demonstration or the strike. The disease is having accepted the logic that the right to invest is worth more than the right to inhabit", he said. The spokesperson also criticized that Mallorca has become "one of the most desired territories to buy and one of the most difficult to live in" and demanded the need to recover the social function of housing.