AT least 28 police officers were injured and 13 people were arrested, including a minor, after a housing protest turned violent in Barcelona.
Hooded rioters began pelting Catalan Mossos d’Esquadra officers with bottles and bricks around 10.15pm on Monday, sparking clashes after thousands had marched peacefully through the city centre.
Agents in anti-riot gear fired rubber bullets at one group on Barcelona’s landmark Rambla, while vandals set rubbish bins on fire on Paseo de Gracia.
Another group of rioters built some 20 makeshift barricades around Plaza de Catalunya as they prepared to face the Mossos, setting fire to nearby electric bicycles before throwing objects at police vans.
The window display of a nearby Zara shop was damaged in the chaos before officers finally managed to quell the unrest around midnight.
It came after tens of thousands rallied in the Catalan capital as protests continued across Spain over the ongoing housing crisis.
The tenants’ union that organised the protest, the Sindicat de Llogateres de Catalunya, said some 120,000 people joined the march, though police put the figure at around 20,000.
Demonstrators were calling for a general workers’ strike, better access to homes and greater tenant protections amid soaring rents and property prices across the country.
A large majority of protesters berated the rioters over the violence, with groups chanting: ‘We’re here for our homes.’
The Barcelona rally marked the ninth day of protests across Spain amid growing social unrest over the housing crisis.
READ MORE: Who will win Spain’s snap election on November 29 – and what do the five main parties stand for?
The wave of demonstrations was triggered by the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her longtime home in Madrid on September 23.
The vulnerable pensioner was kicked out of her home after a new landlord raised her rent from €500 to €2,500, leaving her unable to pay.
She has since been allowed to return home after striking a new deal with the owners of her apartment.
Abascal became a rallying cry for millions of people across Spain who have been left unable to access affordable homes amid a housing shortage and rampant property speculation.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez responded to the mounting discontent by approving two emergency housing decrees on Tuesday last week.
The flagship legislation aimed to ban evictions for vulnerable tenants, automatically renew rental contracts and restrict speculation by so-called vulture funds.
However, the decrees were ultimately rejected by Sanchez’s right-wing opposition during a parliamentary vote on Friday.
The rejection caused protests to escalate and eventually prompted Sanchez to call a snap election for November 29.
In a public appearance on Monday morning, the Socialist PM announced he would dissolve parliament and said he hoped to secure a larger progressive majority in the upcoming election.
Senior officials from Sanchez’s party, the PSOE, say the move aims to capitalise on public fury after the right-wing Partido Popular (PP), hard-right Vox and Catalan independentists Junts per Catalunya voted down the widely-supported housing decrees last week.
In previous opinion polls, the PSOE had been lagging behind the PP for months, with just 25% of voters backing the party compared with a more comfortable 33% for the PP.
However, Sanchez’s ministers believe public discontent may now swing November’s vote in the PSOE’s favour as fury grows over the right’s rejection of the decrees.
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