Thousands of Spanish state tenants face a rental strike since Wednesday
- The tenant unions of the Spanish State have denounced that, although the economy has been held back by the coronavirus crisis, the rents must be paid as before. They are calling for the government to suspend these rents and call for a strike on Wednesday, at the beginning of the month.
As the unions have explained, irrespective of a strike, there are already thousands of unpaid wages – over 10,000 messages have been received at the moment – affected by the economic situation and temporary evictions. In order to protect the disabled, and to require the Spanish Government to cancel the rent payments, they have called for a strike from Wednesday.
"[Owners] continue to charge real estate rents in exchange for gold, as if the economy had not stopped, which will lead thousands of citizens to indebtedness," they explained in a statement. "If we don't charge, we won't pay," they warned. The strike will therefore begin in April, the rental will not be paid, and a resistance box has been set in motion.
The spokesman for the tenant union of Catalonia, Jaime Palomera, explained to the newspaper El Salto that it is "lie" that if the rents are not paid, tens of thousands of euros will remain without rents and without being able to cover the basic needs: “The real estate lobby is spreading this message, which is the transmission belt of banks and funds,” he says. The note to the call for a strike refers precisely to the non-payment of legal persons who receive “many incomes”.
The Stop Evictions platform of Euskal Herria has denounced that the Patronal Real Estate Rental (Asipa) is pushing for these rentals not to be canceled. On the other hand, this platform has welcomed the decision of the Basque Government not to charge public parks for people in vulnerable situations, although it believes that conditions can be improved.
The Government of Spain, for its part, imposed a moratorium not to pay mortgages due to the state of alarm, but has not taken this measure with the rents and the tenant unions have asked for a step. They have also called for housing that is empty or in the hands of vulture funds to be "socialized and made available to the homeless".
The initiative is supported by nearly 200 Ertzaintza agents. There are also Basque trade unions, such as the tenants of Donostia-San Sebastián, among others. They've enabled a website with information and resources.
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