They call a demonstration for the right to housing this Saturday in Palma

PalmaThe housing rights movement will take to the streets again this Saturday in Palma. The Mallorca Tenants' Union, the Palma Housing Union, and the PAH Mallorca have called for a demonstration at 12 p.m. at Plaça d'Espanya under the slogan 'Let's make housing a right!', as part of the new wave of mobilizations called this weekend in different cities across the State.

The protest in Palma comes after the mobilizations of the last few days and the encampment set up in the Plaza de España to demand measures regarding the housing crisis. The organizations consider that the two decree-laws announced by the Spanish government are a step, but they argue that it is necessary to go further and promote structural changes in housing policies.

The call is part of the 22 mobilizations confirmed this weekend in cities such as Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Girona, Zaragoza, Donostia, Gasteiz, Iruñea, Granada, Valladolid, A Coruña, Vigo, Bilbao, and Murcia. In Palma, the demonstration is scheduled for Saturday at noon.

Casserole protests this Thursday

Before the demonstration, the tenants' unions have called for pot-banging protests this Thursday at 8 p.m. in front of town halls across the State to demand that the Congress of Deputies validate the two housing decree-laws announced by the state government. In Madrid, the protest will take place in front of the PP headquarters on Genoa Street. The Confederation of Tenants' Unions argues that the mobilization of recent days has succeeded in pressuring the Spanish government to approve a large part of the demanded measures, but criticizes it for having divided them into two decrees.

According to the organizations, this division could put at risk especially the automatic renewal of rental contracts, one of the measures they consider most structural and which has been incorporated into the second decree. The unions thus demand that the parliamentary groups support both texts when they reach Congress and warn that the mobilization will continue beyond the processing of these measures.

A general strike for housing

With a view to Saturday's mobilizations, the movement is also proposing a longer-term goal: to move towards a general strike for housing.

The unions believe that emergency decrees cannot, on their own, reverse decades of policies that, as they denounce, have turned housing into a business. For this reason, they want to take advantage of the current mobilization to push for a deeper change in housing policies.

The state-wide call also includes a protest in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat that was initially planned as a tribute to Olga, a resident who took her own life after suffering an eviction. The organizers want to turn it into a broader act of protest because, they argue, no other person should have to go through a similar situation.