Hundreds of people take to the streets in the Basque Country and Navarre against the housing business
LAB calls for urgent action against speculation and investment funds Mobilizations continue after Congress reverses housing decrees
Hundreds of people took to thestreets this Saturday in Donostia-San Sebastián, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Pamplona/Iruña to protest against the transformation of housing into a "business" and to demand measures to guarantee the right to decent housing. LAB and various social partners have called for mobilizations one day after Congress rejected the government's housing decrees.
The protests continue with the demonstrations held on Friday in the three capitals of Euskal Herria.
Protest in San Sebastian against speculation
In Donostia-San Sebastián, the march left after noon on the Boulevard, led by a banner with the slogans "Borroka da giltza" and "No to the business of housing", in which the general coordinator of LAB, Garbiñe Aranburu, the general coordinator of Ezker Anitza-IU, Arantza González, and members of the Stop Evictions platform participated.
Protesters have marched through the city's central streets with LAB flags and Ikurriñas in their hands, chanted slogans against evictions and vulture funds and claimed their right to decent housing, returning to the Boulevard and ending the mobilization with the agreement of an LAB spokesman.
Aranburu has claimed that "the housing situation is a state of emergency"and has denounced that "we are opposed to renting, speculating and turning housing into a business."
The LAB leader believes that the two decrees rejected by Congress would have been a step forward for those in housing emergencies, but that they would not have fully solved the problem, which is structural and requires deeper measures.
LAB announces meetings with unions and social partners
Aranburu has called for "intensifying the street struggle." He has also announced that LAB will contact other unions and social partners to assess the current situation and see what kind of response can be articulated.
The mobilization comes after Congress on Friday rejected the two housing decrees, including the extension of lease agreements, limits on rent upgrades, protection against certain evictions, and measures to limit certain investment fund activities.
LAB calls for "rescue" Test homes in Pamplona
In Pamplona, LAB has concentrated on Merindades Square to demand the departure of vulture funds from the housing market and, in particular, the expulsion of Testa Residencial and Catella Group from Navarre.
LAB's Social Action Manager, Jaime Iribarren, has explained that the mobilizations are being organized in conjunction with tenants in various conflicts. In the case of Pamplona, he has talked about families living in flats controlled by Testa Residencial, a subsidiary of the US investment fund Testa Blackstone.
Iribarren has complained thatTesta wants to evict 507 families and has asked the Navarre government to intervene to allocate these homes to the public rental park. According to LAB, the homes were built with public money and should therefore be for public housing, not the real estate business.
According to LAB, the rally in Pamplona is part of a coordinated response.
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