Tens of thousands protest high rents in Barcelona

euronews (in English)

A large number of Spaniards took to the streets of Barcelona on Saturday night to protest a housing crunch and the high cost of renting an apartment in the city.

Transcript

00:00Thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona to demand a 50% drop in rents and

00:07to call for a housing strike if the situation does not improve.

00:11Authorities reported 22,000 attendees, whilst organizers claimed it was 126,000.

00:18The protest, organized by the tenants' union, carried the slogan,

00:23It's over in Catalan.

00:25The main demands include promoting indefinite contracts to put an end to blackmail and insecurity

00:31at the end of each contract, to recover housing for residential use and to prohibit speculative

00:37buy-in.

00:38A Bank of Spain report indicates that nearly 40% of Spanish renters spend an average of

00:4340% of their income on rent and utilities, compared to the EU average of 23%.

00:50The rally in Barcelona comes just over a month after thousands marched the streets

00:55of Madrid.

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