Police fire tear gas as housing protests sweep Spain (VIDEOS)

    Tens of thousands have taken to the streets after parliament rejected emergency measures aimed at protecting tenants

    Tens of thousands of people have demonstrated across Spain to demand affordable rents and stronger protections for tenants amid a deepening housing crisis.

    Average rents have almost doubled over the past decade, according to property website Idealista. On Friday, parliament narrowly rejected two emergency housing decrees proposed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government.

    Around 70,000 people marched through the streets of Madrid on Saturday to denounce the decision, according to authorities, while organizers put the figure at half a million. Similar demonstrations took place across around 50 Spanish cities.

    In the eastern city of Valencia, demonstrators clashed with police, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowds. Around 30 protesters breached the security perimeter around the City of Arts and Sciences, a landmark cultural complex, before officers removed them.

    Protesters are demanding a 50% reduction in rents, open-ended rental contracts, and the expropriation of homes from investment firms they describe as “vulture funds.” Tenants’ Union spokesperson Valeria Racu said a general strike would be called following talks with labor unions.

    “There is an irreparable disconnect between what the people want and what the parties vote for,” the Tenants’ Union, which coordinates the demonstrations, said in a statement.

    The protests, which began last month, were sparked by the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, from the Madrid flat where she had lived for around seven decades. She was carried out on a stretcher after being unable to afford a sharp rent increase. Her landlord subsequently agreed to let her return at a lower rent, but the wider demonstrations continued.

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