A Renfe AVE train at Barcelona Sants station, October 2023 file. Jon Worth / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0, cropped).
Transport and public services across Spain were disrupted on Wednesday in the country’s first general strike in 14 years, a 24-hour walkout called by the main unions over housing costs and the rising cost of living less than three weeks before a national election.
The strike, which began at midnight under the slogan “Salaries. Housing. Prices.”, forced the cancellation of 24% of AVE high-speed trains and 10% of Cercanías commuter services, while 289 flights, 6.4% of those scheduled, were cancelled. Roads were blocked in Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona and other cities, and picketers blocked access to Barcelona’s Sants station and the port of Algeciras.
In Madrid, demonstrators cut traffic on the Gran Vía during the morning and two people were arrested when police moved to reopen the street; the crowd dispersed by early afternoon. The interior ministry said dozens of people were arrested in various incidents across the country, without giving an exact figure. In Terrassa, near Barcelona, around 2,000 housing activists occupied an apartment building owned by the state bad bank Sareb that they said had stood empty for eleven years.
The size of the walkout was disputed. The UGT and CCOO unions reported stoppages of 90% in the automotive and port sectors and estimated participation of between 65% and 80% in the Madrid region. The CEOE employers’ confederation said participation was low and uneven, varying by region and sector, and its president, Antonio Garamendi, accused the government of encouraging the strike for electoral ends.
The strike follows months of protests over access to affordable housing, triggered by the September eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old Madrid pensioner who died days later, and a five-week tent occupation of the capital’s Puerta del Sol square. Average rents in Spain have nearly doubled over the past decade; in Madrid, a 50-square-meter apartment averaged €1,170 a month in October, close to half the average gross monthly salary.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called snap elections for November 29 after parliament failed to approve his housing reform package. He has defended the strike as a legitimate demand for action on housing, while opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the conservative People’s Party, which leads in the polls, called it “nonsense” and accused the government of weaponizing the stoppage. Further demonstrations were planned in Madrid and Barcelona later on Wednesday.
JBizNews Desk | Madrid
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