las palmas housing protest 10000 march

10,000 march in Las Palmas over housing crisis

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

Thousands take to the streets of Las Palmas

Around 10,000 people took part in a march in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Saturday to demand solutions to the difficulties of accessing housing and to insist that this right be guaranteed. Throughout the route, demonstrators chanted slogans in defence of the right to housing and in support of antifascist neighbourhoods.

Among the chants heard were “The Government of the Canary Islands is an estate agent”, “If I pay the rent I don’t make it to the end of the month” and “Fewer houses to invest in, more flats to live in”. A sea of people of all ages, from the Plaza de la Feria to the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, called for an end to speculation in housing and the abuses of vulture funds.

Along the route, a woman of Maricarmen’s age waved her keys from a third-floor flat and the crowd responded with loud applause. The protest also included symbolic sit-ins at various points along the route. The noisiest took place in front of the headquarters of the Government of the Canary Islands, with demonstrators raising their keys as a gesture of protest against the difficulties of accessing a home.

Personal stories behind the protest

This is the story of Elena, a 32-year-old journalist who marched in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Saturday because her rent has been raised to 1,200 euros for a 60-square-metre flat. “I’ve come from another rental where I was evicted so they could charge 600 euros for the room I was paying 400 for,” she says.

For Elena, the demonstrations that have been taking place since Maricarmen’s eviction make her hair stand on end. She believes it is absolutely necessary to take to the streets because “housing is a social right and it is about our present and our future”, she explains.

Isla is a little girl on her father’s shoulders. She doesn’t want to talk to the press, but she is already learning, at an early age and from a height where she can see the whole horizon, that the struggle seems to be the only way forward. Her mother, Marta, tells Canarias Ahora that people need to take to the streets to defend the right to housing and protect neighbourhoods from fascism.

A little older than Isla, three young women aged under 25 met up on Saturday to attend the demonstration: a Helena with an H, a Sakira without an H, and another named Melina. The latter is the first to tell Canarias Ahora why she is on the street today: “Because it’s a movement for everyone: for young people, for older people. This issue affects us all and it’s very important to come out today to demand our rights, which are basic human rights, such as having a home,” she explains.

“I feel that Maricarmen’s eviction has been the last straw and has made a huge number of people take to the streets,” says Helena. For Sakira, who is carrying the banner bearing the headline of this article, things can change and she is hopeful. “But a lot of information is needed for people who are at home and haven’t demonstrated because they don’t see that this is a fight for human rights, beyond left and right,” she says.

The fight continues

The crowd finished the route where it had begun, in the square where the camp for the right to housing remains. There they heard the organisation’s manifestos, which warn that the struggle continues and that it is time to prepare for the demonstrations to come, on the road towards a general housing strike and talks with the trade unions.

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