'We're ready to do anything' - Massive housing protests sweep Spain

Spain's biggest-ever housing protest?

Rent prices have doubled in some regions of Spain amid record tourism, housing speculation and the rise of short-term rental platforms like AirBnB.

Valeria is one of many Spaniards who find themselves locked out of the housing market - unable to buy, or in many cases even rent.

On Saturday tens of thousands took to the streets in a mass protest in Madrid, Malaga, Valencia, Sevilla, Barcelona and beyond - more than 40 Spanish cities in total, potentially making this Spain's biggest-ever housing protest. 

With thousands crying out for decent and affordable housing, and the opportunity to form a family out of reach, young people and migrants are worst affected.

"I'm very angry," Dario Cortabitarte says, another young person at the protest. "I belong to a housing union which fights this problem every day – not only for the young, but for the whole population of Spain, in which paying rent is a very big struggle."

"I spend more than half of my salary on housing and my friends are exactly the same," Valeria Racu tells CGTN in Madrid amid the growing roar of the protest.

She's leading the 'Renters Syndicate' all dressed in bright orange marching with drums, music, dancing and rattling their keys in the air - a new sign of defiance.

"Rent profiteering ends here, the government's housing law is a piece of s***," they chant, under a banner that reads 'Lower the prices or rent strikes are coming'.

"Next year my contract is up and I don't know what's going to happen," continues Valeria. "We cannot live dignified lives. We have super poor-mental health, we don't know what our future is going to be like.

"But I'm organized, part of this tenant's union, and I'm gonna fight, I'm gonna stay in my home."

The government says it has made the issue a priority, arguing that successful policies have seen rent prices drop by five percent in Barcelona.

"The government of Spain is doing its part; we are rolling up our sleeves," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last month.

"We are doing this to ensure that people's constitutional rights now become a reality - together. We will not stop until people have access to decent housing. This is the fifth pillar of our welfare state."

Protesters made their view on the government's housing law (La ley de vivienda) perfectly clear at the protest, chanting 'la ley de vivieda es una mierda'.

More radical and immediate measures

On the streets of Spain they are demanding much more radical and immediate measures including more public housing, an immediate drop in rents, an end to property speculation, and that something is done with the more than 3.8 million empty homes in Spain.

The syndicate that Valeria and Dario are part of want to go much further, with rent strikes already happening. 

"The future of Spain, the future of society is at risk, so we are willing to do whatever is needed. We already have two rent strikes happening against big landlords, one in Madrid who has 42 blocks just in our region and one against the second-biggest landlord in Spain, Caixa Bank. They're working, and we want to expand the rent strikes.

"We know that here in Spain they are not legal, it doesn't matter. We know they work and therefore we're going to go for it.

"We are in conversations and we're very close to labor unions as well, and we're looking into general strikes because this is a social problem. It's not something between landlords and tenants. It's a social program. We're allowing for a system that makes us all poor and that is not good for our society."

The protestors chant "for every eviction, a new occupation," calling for empty houses and buildings to be occupied. They want eviction companies to be outlawed and vulnerable families protected – and with house prices projected to rise a further 10 percent this year, they say the protest movement will not be silenced.