The Casco Viejo de Pamplona/Iruña (Navarra) was last night welcomed claims in favour of the right to housing. The Housing Union Haritu and the Socialist Housing Union of the Region of Pamplona held the call for mobilizations, and after 19:00 hours they left the Plaza de las Recoletas to guarantee the right to housing. No to business! Under the motto '.

During the tour, the protesters denounced the situation of homeless people and the responsibility of public institutions, launched a large banner from the balconies of the Unzu Inn, through another large banner in which they called for mobilisation on 14 December in Bilbao (Bizkaia), etc. The mobilisation ended in the Town Hall square, where representatives of the two housing unions spoke.

The origin of the housing problem in the social model

Both pointed out that the housing problem is "increasingly suffocating" for the working class, as evidenced by the increased rent and the impossibility of buying a home. While banks "accumulate wealth" and surpass "historical records", the "result is evident" for the working class, they recalled: "Much of the population is being excluded from access to housing"; "either savagely and openly, as in the case of evictions, or confidentially".

Although impoverishment is becoming more widespread, Haritu and the Socialist Housing Union stressed that the housing problem is not new: "Since the creation of this social model, there has always been a sector of the working class that has been denied access to housing. It's not a cyclical problem or a system failure due to the greed of a few speculators, which has always worked this way." The proletariat "has always been out of stable access to quality housing", especially migrant and working women.

Focus on access to housing

Contrary to what professional politicians and employers say, the two unions explained that the problem "should not be sought in housing supply", but in "access to housing". "There are houses, but they are more profitable, empty or destined for tourism," they condemned: "The cause of the problem is the business itself." As an example it was mentioned that in the region of Pamplona there are 7,000 empty houses and in the whole of Navarra there are 30,000 empty houses.

Political parties, as part of the problem

The housing unions warned, however, that in the face of the mobilizations that are taking place in defense of the right to housing, the political parties are "using this social anger to feed programs that do not solve the housing problem" and "to justify policies that finance the housing business itself".

All the political parties link the solution to the "promotion of supply" in the housing market, as they recalled yesterday in the demonstration: to grant subsidies to owners; "to promote construction cycles through public-private collaboration"; "to give subsidies to banks in the face of the difficulty of young people who cannot buy a home"; "to increase miserable social housing through brutal subsidies to entrepreneurs, vulture funds and banks that want to enter the affordable housing business, etc. "They are all part of the problem, and therefore they will never be able to be part of the solution," the unions said in a statement.

In defence of the right to housing, on 14 December to Bilbao

Yesterday it was well proclaimed from the heart of Pamplona: "Faced with the housing business and the politicians who promote it, we have to make a real defense of the right to universal housing." The protesters called to join the struggle and, in particular, to fight "for a profound social transformation", so that "everyone has access to guaranteed housing".

In this regard, they underlined the mobilization that all housing unions in Euskal Herria have organized for the next 14 December. It will be in Bilbao, from 13:00 hours, from Moyua.