Spanish protests against holidaymakers explode into violence

Protests over a housing crisis blamed on tourists snapping up short-term rnetals and holiday homes across Spain exploded into violence on Saturday, with demonstrators seen throwing fences at riot police.Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid and other Spanish cities this...

Ghanamma

October 4, 2026Ghana

By SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER 16:52 03 Oct 2026, updated 18:17 03 Oct 2026

Protests over a housing crisis blamed on tourists snapping up short-term rentals and holiday homes across Spain exploded into violence on Saturday, with demonstrators seen throwing fences at riot police.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid and other Spanish cities this weekend as they demanded action to tackle the mounting housing crisis after government measures were struck down by the opposition.

Demonstrators waved posters calling for a general strike after the measures drawn up to address the anger over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid, alongside other ⁠housing issues, were rejected in parliament on Friday.

Footage taken at a protest in Valencia showed protesters charging at riot police with fences, as officers used their batons to strike demonstrators.

Protesters also shouted insults at officers as they broke through a police barricade.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

About 30 protesters managed to get inside the City of the Arts and Sciences, a landmark cultural building in the city.

Officers responded with tear gas and rubber bullets to break up protests.

Thousands marched in Madrid to call for a general strike a day after the Spanish parliament rejected government housing measures, including a proposed ban on evictions of vulnerable tenants.

The proposed legislation failed after lawmakers from the Catalan separatist party Junts – a sometime ally of the Left-wing government – joined the opposition in voting it down, arguing the proposals would exacerbate matters by reducing housing supply.

The legislation had sought to ban evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, impose a two-year rent freeze extension for existing leases and introduce tighter rules for short-term rentals such as Airbnb.

‘It’s a shame,’ said Nando de Anguulo, 26, who joined Saturday’s protest in Madrid.

‘It only proves that it is us, the people, who have to adapt to the political parties, and not the politicians to what the people want, and this can’t go on like that.’

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez may call a snap election for November after the legislation failed to pass, Spanish media reported on Friday, and he would be watching the strength ⁠of Saturday’s protests before making a decision.

Mr Sanchez’s office refused to comment on the reports.

Around 1,000 protesters have spent the past week camped out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, one of the city’s most popular public spaces, after 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal was evicted from her home of seven decades in the capital last month.

Tens of thousands of people periodically march in major cities demanding action from lawmakers and blaming real estate speculators as well as tourist apartment platforms like Airbnb for rising rents.

But a new wave of indignation swept Spain when Ms Abascal, who uses a wheelchair, was carried out on a stretcher from her apartment after police cordoned off the street.

Televised images of the eviction prompted thousands of people to protest in Madrid and other cities across the country.

‘I haven’t managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others can learn to fight for what’s theirs,’ Ms Abascal said in a video from her hospital bed after the eviction.

The Spanish real estate company, which had insisted on evicting her in order to rent the property at a much higher price, ended up reaching an agreement for her to return to the apartment, her lawyer said, adding that Ms Abascal was ‘happy’.

She is yet to be discharged from the hospital.

Even with a satisfying resolution for ‘Maricarmen’ – a combination of her names Maria and Carmen – Ms Abascal remains the embodiment of the struggle against suffocating rental costs.

Protesters have carried signs with slogans such as ‘not even one more Maricarmen’ and demonstrations have been cropping up in cities across the country.

The protesters say they won’t leave until the Spanish government takes real steps to protect tenants.

A similar encampment has also cropped up in Barcelona’s Plaza Catalunya.

The housing crunch has been simmering for years in Spain, eating into household budgets and angering voters.

While many countries have similar circumstances, Spain’s poorest and its young are being particularly affected because they can’t afford to purchase a home and are being squeezed by the country’s small stock of rental properties.

The average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the last ten years.

The price per square meter has risen from 8.20 euros in 2016 to 15.10 euros this year, according to the real estate website Idealista.

Spain’s government said that 26 per cent of Spaniards who rent housing spend an average of 40 per cent of their income on rent and utilities, compared with the EU average of 18 per cent of renters who do so.

The country ranks near the bottom among countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for government-owned rental properties, which represent less than 2 per cent of its available stock. The EU average is 8 per cent.

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