Thousands of people take to the streets of Palma for housing with the cry of "Get landlords out of our neighborhoods"
The National Police estimate at about 3,000 the protesters who have traveled through the center of the city, while the convening entities estimate about 10,000 people
PalmaThousands of people marched through the center of Palma this Saturday to demand the right to housing. The National Police estimated an attendance of about 3,000 people, while the organizing entities estimate around 10,000. For nearly two hours, house keys jingled among the protesters, and chants such as "Get rentiers out of our neighborhoods," "Neither people without homes nor homes without people," and "Long live the working class struggle" accompanied a march that passed through some of the most central and expensive streets in the city.
The protest, called by the Mallorca Tenants' Union, the Palma Housing Union, and the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) of Mallorca, began shortly after twelve at Plaça d'Espanya, where the housing encampment with about thirty tents is being held. The lead banner, with the slogan "We make housing a right", opened a demonstration to which people joined as it advanced through the center.
Palma has thus joined a day of mobilizations that this Saturday reached more than 50 cities in the State, called after Congress rejected on Friday the two housing decrees promoted by the Spanish government. Among other measures, the texts included automatic extensions of rental contracts, limits on certain rents, restrictions on the purchase of housing by investment funds, and tax incentives. The decrees failed with the votes against from the PP, Vox, Junts and, in one of the texts, UPN.
Keys in hand and shouts through the center of Palma
One of the most visible elements of the protest has been the keys. Throughout practically the entire route, many of the attendees carried them in their hands and shook them to make noise, turning them into one of the symbols of the march. At the same time, slogans such as "Vulture funds out", "The house is not for sale, it is defended" and "Neither people without a home nor a home without people" followed one another.
The demonstration went down Carrer dels Oms, where one of the first notable stops was made. Upon arriving in front of the Vox headquarters, a good part of the participants turned towards the facade to whistle and chanted "Here are the anti-fascists". The march then continued along the Rambla and the surroundings of the Teatre Principal and the Born, one of the areas with the most tourist presence and the highest real estate prices in Palma. There, "The streets will always continue to be ours" was also heard repeatedly.
Among the protesters there were several political officials. The President of the Congress, Francina Armengol, could be seen there, the day after the vote on the housing decrees in the lower house, in addition to the socialist senators Pere Joan Pons and José Hila; Rosario Sánchez, Amanda Fernández, and the coordinator of MÉS per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia.
The protest has also been marked by banners calling for progress towards a general strike. There were others directed directly against the parties that rejected the decrees in Congress, in addition to messages linking the housing crisis in the Balearic Islands with tourism pressure. "I would be ashamed to evict a grandmother," could be read on one of the signs, while another recalled the years of salary that, according to the organizers, a resident of the Islands needs to acquire a home.
"Shame" in front of the Government Delegation
One of the most intense moments arrived around 1:30 PM, when the head of the march reached the Government Delegation. The march stopped and hundreds of people raised their hands while shouting "Shame" in unison. Amidst the gathering, a person from an anti-fascist collective, with their face covered, lit a black smoke flare, a gesture that was received with applause by the protesters surrounding them.
The spokesperson for the Mallorca Tenants' Union, Óscar Martínez, defended the importance of the recent mobilizations before the march began and pointed out that a "perfect storm" is occurring in the Balearic Islands due to the combination of a limited territory, the growing gap between wages and rental prices, and the weight of the tourism economy.
On behalf of PAH Mallorca, Ángela Pons criticized the political response to the crisis and advocated for directing the mobilization toward a general strike. "We must take to the streets not only for housing, but for education, healthcare, and all the rights that are being taken away from us," she stated.
For his part, Miquel Durán, spokesperson for the Palma Housing Union, considered the measures proposed so far to be insufficient as long as housing continues to function as a market commodity. According to Durán, in the Balearic Islands, the measures should be even more restrictive due to the territory's particularities.
The mobilization in Palma took place in parallel with protests in Madrid, Valencia, and dozens of other cities. In Madrid, four columns marched through the capital with their sights also set on a future general strike, while in Valencia, thousands of people came out with the slogan "For the right to housing. Out with speculators and rentiers."