Without tents or protection: The housing encampment in Palma returns 24 hours after the eviction

PalmaAbout twenty people have returned to spend the night in the Plaza de España in Palma. This time they have done so without tents or any kind of barrier or protection. Just 24 hours after the eviction on the night of last Wednesday, ordered by the Palma City Council, the housing encampment is once again a reality and they aim to remain gathered in the Plaza de España until November 11th, the day of the general strike.

Housing activists returned around 7:00 p.m. this Thursday, although they moved their assembly to the porches of the Olivar market due to the heavy rain that occurred at the start of the meeting.

After debating different aspects related to the general strike on November 11th, they returned to the square to finish the assembly. Once there, they read a statement, held a community dinner, and tried to sleep despite the deployment of several police patrols.

According to the activists' account, the officers indicated to them that in order to be protected by the right of assembly they would have to remain standing and not lie down or sit on the ground. From the encampment, they understood this to be a "new coercion" by the City Council, since their protest would fall under the right of assembly and they emphasized that it would also be "protected" by the Government Delegation.

The activists warn that this new encampment has been set up "without a perimeter" and "without barriers" because Cort took them away the previous day, when they removed the pallets that delimited the area occupied by the protest.