Millions voice their fury in Spanish general strike – as the right gains ground in polls

Madrid: Spanish workers have voiced their fury at rising prices and soaring rents in a general strike that brought thousands of people onto the streets to demand better wages and government services.

The union action shut down or scaled back services across the country during a day of mass rallies in every major city, leading to sporadic confrontations between protesters and police.

Protesters use a metal fence to try to force their way into an Apple Store in Barcelona during clashes following the nationwide strike in Spain.AP Photo/Emilio MorenattiWorkers jammed the main thoroughfare of Madrid to march through the central shopping district with banners calling for action on salaries, housing and prices – the three issues likely to decide a general election on November 29.

Consumer prices and rents have outpaced wages across Spain for the past decade while house values have surged due to a shortage of new properties, putting home ownership increasingly out of reach of young people.

“We have to fight because we need lower prices,” said Rebeca Castaño, a teacher at an infants’ school who marched with her colleagues in Madrid.

Castaño said some of the children in her school lived in homes where their families crammed four or five people into a single bedroom because housing costs were so high.

Rebeca Castaño, a teacher, stands with colleagues at a demonstration in Madrid as part of a general strike across Spain on November 11.David Crowe“The government needs to limit prices. They have to spend more on social housing,” she said. “And they have to make a law to stop the tourist flats because in the city centre all of the flats are being used for tourists.”

Anger over housing costs has turned the Spanish people strongly against the use of Airbnb and similar services, with a recent survey finding 79.2 per cent of voters believed vacation rentals were contributing “a lot or quite a bit” to higher rents.

Unions estimated that 4 million workers turned out for the rallies across the country on Wednesday (Madrid time), suggesting that close to 8 per cent of the population took part in the first general strike in 14 years.

Spanish police estimated 120,000 people joined the Madrid demonstration and more than 50,000 took to the streets in Barcelona, with protesters remaining peaceful until the evening.

Protesters cram the streets of central Madrid on Wednesday evening. AP Photo/Francisco SecoPolice officers remove protesters blocking the entrance to a bank branch in Pamplona.APRiot police dispersed the crowd in Barcelona late on Wednesday night by using pepper spray and tear gas, while some of the protesters threw objects at the police until they scattered into the streets. Some masked protesters set fire to rubbish bins and smashed shop windows around the Paseo de Gracia boulevard popular with shoppers and tourists. Police made dozens of arrests.

The tension between police and protesters lasted for several hours in Madrid under heavy rain, limiting the prospects for agitators to start fires when they overturned bins and spread rubbish.

Frustration over the cost of living has spread across Europe and fuelled protests in Portugal, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and other countries over recent months. While media attention has focused on riots and looting in France, similar clashes have been seen on a smaller scale in Belgium and Italy.

A protester reacts after being targeted with pepper spray by police in Madrid.APPeople marched in heavy rain during the Madrid protests.AP Photo/Francisco SecoThe protests in Spain have focused on housing after widespread outrage at a property company that evicted a disabled pensioner, Maricarmen Abascal, 87, from her apartment in September. She died in hospital weeks later.

While the protests over the treatment of Maricarmen – as she is now known across Spain – led to government vows to limit rent increases, ordinary households are dealing with a decade of upward pressure on housing and other costs.

House prices rose 84.6 per cent over the decade to 2025, while average wages increased 27.9 per cent, according to figures from the National Statistics Institute cited by Euronews.

Protesters in Barcelona barricade the entrance of fast-food restaurant Popeye’s.Getty ImagesA protester in Madrid during the general strike in Spain. Her sign reads: “We are not slaves. We want to live, not just survive. Our rights must be defended.”David CroweOne young protester told us the government should freeze prices and take other action to ensure young people could afford housing. She held a sign saying: “We are not slaves. We want to live, not just survive. Our rights must be defended.”

Another, Maribel Moreno, said housing was becoming “impossible” and public services were suffering from a lack of investment.

“We are not here just for salaries, but for other things also – for housing, for education, for healthcare,” said Moreno, an office worker at the Madrid Metro.

Maribel Moreno, a worker at the Madrid Metro, stands with a friend at a demonstration in Madrid.David CrowePrime Minister Pedro Sanchez has held power since 2018 as the leader of the Socialists, but he is trailing in the polls behind the conservative People’s Party and its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

While Sanchez defeated Feijóo at the last election, in 2023, the latest survey by polling firm Sociometrica found there had been a net transfer of 832,000 voters from the left to the right since its previous survey.

If the People’s Party combined with the hard-right Vox party, the polling firm forecast, the bloc would win about 200 of the 350 seats in the lower house. This would put the conservative side comfortably ahead of Sanchez and the Socialists with an expected 108 seats, according to the results reported in Spanish newspaper El Español.

Feijoo moved on Tuesday to outline election policies including tighter controls on migration, a ban on Islamic veils in public places and the use of the armed forces to toughen border control. He also spoke of limiting welfare benefits to people with lasting ties to Spain.

Sanchez, in contrast, announced an amnesty for undocumented migrants earlier this year, leading to more than 1 million applications for settlement. Only some of those who applied were expected to be approved.

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