Spanish workers went on a general strike on Wednesday, November 11, setting up picket lines despite stormy weather in a mass protest against the country's housing affordability crisis, Reuters reported from Madrid.

Source: Reuters

It is the first general strike in 14 years to be jointly backed by Spain's two largest unions, the UGT and the CCOO — representing more than a million workers — as well as other labour organisations and tenants' associations angry about rising rents and evictions. The BBC also reported widespread disruption across Spain in the first general strike for 14 years, with protests expected in the biggest cities.

Spain has a deficit of about 750,000 homes, which is set to grow to more than a million by 2028, according to the central bank. With fewer people able to afford to buy, renting has increased sharply, putting pressure on that market: the average rental price of €1,176 (yaani about $1,315 a month) is equivalent to about 98.7 percent of a young person's average monthly salary, according to the Youth Council of Spain.

The strike comes less than three weeks before a snap general election on November 29. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hopes to harness voter resentment over housing in the election, Reuters reported; the Seoul Economic Daily reported the snap vote was called after the government's housing-cost measures were voted down in parliament.

France 24 reported that millions of Spanish workers shut down businesses and public transportation in Wednesday's protest. Minimum services kept parts of transport and essential services running, as is standard in Spanish general strikes, but unions said the stoppage was aimed at forcing housing to the top of the election campaign.

A housing crisis, not a pay strike

Unlike the austerity-era strikes of the eurozone debt crisis, this stoppage is not centred on wages or pensions: its stated target is the cost and scarcity of housing itself — soaring rents, evictions and a construction shortfall that the central bank says will keep widening for at least two more years.

What happens next: the strike's turnout will be read as a test of whether housing anger can move the November 29 vote. The government and opposition parties now have under three weeks to convince renters — in a country where average rent consumes nearly all of a young worker's pay — that they have a credible plan to close a 750,000-home gap.