Spain approves housing reforms after nationwide strike over costs

Spanish parliament passes housing reforms limiting evictions but their duration will depend on upcoming snap election outcome. The Spanish parliament has passed measures to limit evictions and real estate speculation in an attempt to make housing more affordable, a day after a nationwide general strike over the country’s housing crisis.

Spain’s interim lower house of parliament ratified the housing measures on Thursday; however, their duration will depend on the outcome of a snap election scheduled later in November. The leading opposition party, the conservative Popular Party, has said that it will repeal the measures of the left-wing government if it takes power, which polls indicate could happen.

Large demonstrations over unaffordable housing swept the country in September when televised images of the eviction of 87-year-old Maria del Carmen Abascal , known as Maricarmen, from her home, shocked many Spaniards. Protest camps sprang up in several cities, the largest in Madrid’s emblematic Puerta del Sol square.