Participants in the sit-ins in the two capital cities of the Canary Islands stated on Friday, following Parliament’s rejection of the housing decrees put forward by the Government, that they will not stop protesting until the housing crisis is resolved and housing is effectively recognised as a right.
When the result was announced, the people who had been in the Plaza de La Feria in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria since the start of the parliamentary debate, listening to it via a loudspeaker and on their mobile phones, reacted with shouts of «general strike!», some tears and displays of frustration following a decision they believe will strengthen the protests that began this week on the islands.
«We were hopeful, but we weren’t under any illusions either,» said Daniel González, a contributor to Derecho al Techo and a member of the Communist Youth of the Canary Islands, adding that «after seeing this disastrous result, one thing is clear: we’re now going to give it our all».
Canary Islands: Protest camps continue to mobilise for housing
«We’re not going to stop,» David González, spokesperson for the Tenerife Tenants‘ Union, also told EFE, adding that the rejection of these rights in Parliament «will strengthen» the fight to regulate the housing market.
Paula Nuñez, one of the spokespeople for Derecho al Techo in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has stated that the protests will be channelled into a united struggle because «the working class can’t take it any longer; we’re right at breaking point».
Another spokesperson for this group, Javier Marrero, has expressed his frustration following the outcome in the Congress of Deputies, «particularly because of the vulnerable situation in which many people now find themselves», and has pointed out that some of the remarks made in Parliament «are insulting».
The Las Kellys express their helplessness and anger
«A tremendous sense of helplessness and a great deal of anger»
The spokesperson for Las Kellys in Gran Canaria, Marcia Díaz, who was also in the square during the extraordinary plenary session, felt «a tremendous sense of powerlessness and a great deal of anger», which she expressed to journalists by pointing out that this is her struggle too.
«We are working women, we pay rent, and many of us have been evicted,» she said, emphasising her «deep disappointment with our politicians, who do not seem to be pulling in the same direction as the people».
Housing protests are growing in Gran Canaria and Tenerife
The protest camp, organised by Derecho al Techo, is now in its third day in the square in the capital of Gran Canaria, opposite the Government Delegation, a place where a quote from the writer Benito Pérez Galdós can be read on one of its walls: «Just as night gives way to the light of day, so oppression gives way to freedom.»
According to the latest figures from the so-called Town Planning Committee of the camp, which, as a sign at the information point states, is taking place «to demand decent rents and laws against property speculation», there are now around 200 people spending the night in more than 100 tents.
In Tenerife, the protest has been taking place since Wednesday evening in the square opposite the Tenerife Island Council, which the protesters have renamed ‚Unfortunate Islands‘ with a banner, and around 200 people have also joined this campaign organised by the Tenants‘ Union and the Platform for Those Affected by Mortgages, with the support of various social and neighbourhood groups and organisations.
Holiday lets and the lack of housing construction are coming under criticism
‚Your Airbnb was my home‘
Among the posters in Las Palmas, there is also space to highlight how tourism is affecting housing in the archipelago: «Your Airbnb used to be my home» or that holiday homes «are only for foreigners with high purchasing power; Canarians need not apply», read some of them.
David González, from the Tenerife Tenants‘ Union, has claimed that in the archipelago «no housing legislation is being enforced» and has criticised Coalición Canaria for failing to support the second decree proposing a mandatory extension of tenancy agreements, a decision he considers «utterly frivolous and hypocritical» because «the real anti-eviction policy is open-ended tenancy».
He also pointed out that in the Canary Islands there is a stock of public housing «which amounts to less than 3 per cent of the total, and absolutely nothing is being done to guarantee the right to housing apart from stopgap measures», since, in his view, all policies «are structured to benefit those at the top, vulture funds and big business, both through the speculative housing market and through the tourism market» on the islands.
This Saturday, the protesters will hold demonstrations for the right to housing on both islands; David González has called on small property owners to join these protests as well, because the union’s demands «include them».
«Rejected decrees spur Canary Islands camps to call general strike»
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