Around 4 million workers—around 17% of the country’s 23 million-strong workforce—participated in the Nov. 11 walkout, unions said. The strike was organized by Spain’s two largest unions, the General Union of Workers (UGT) and the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), tenants’ associations, and other unions. In cities across Spain, including Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday to demand measures to bring down rental prices.
The strike comes weeks before Spain’s Nov. 29 national election, in which rising rents and cost-of-living have become defining issues. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government called snap elections last month after the eviction and subsequent death of an 87-year-old tenant in September prompted days of mass protests.
Read More: Spain’s Leader Is Betting His Government on the Housing Crisis
“Every right that workers in this country enjoy was won through struggle and strikes,” Spain’s Social Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy, an independent politician allied with Sánchez, said on Tuesday, the day before the strike. Second Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz, a member of Sumar, the junior partner in Sánchez’s left-wing coalition government, posted on Bluesky on Wednesday: “When our country stops, it is always to move forward.”
“We don’t distinguish between political affiliations,” Valeria Racu, a spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants’ Union, told the Spanish public broadcaster TVE on Wednesday. “The time for politicians is over. We have no more patience. The power is in the streets.”
CEOE, Spain’s main employers’ confederation, however, estimated that less than 5% of workers participated. In statements, CEOE said the action was a “failure,” and it argued that employers were being unfairly made to bear the cost of demands over housing policy. The association said the government’s support for the strike projects “a regrettable image abroad.”
In Barcelona, the regional government suspended metro and public bus services outside peak hours. In Madrid, metro traffic through 10 a.m. local time was 42% lower than the same period last Wednesday.
While unions said protests were largely peaceful, police reported at least 75 arrests across the country as of Wednesday night. Officials said there were at least 1,044 incidents linked to the general strike. In Barcelona, police said protesters had smashed shop windows, burned rubbish containers, and launched fireworks at officers.
A fire is seen on the street during the demonstration after the general strike in Barcelona on Nov. 11, 2026. —Davide Bonaldo—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty ImagesRiot police apprehend protesters in Barcelona on Nov. 11, 2026. —Davide Bonaldo—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Frustrations loom over election
The demonstrations are at the center of political debate ahead of the elections.
“Don’t hold it,” PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo warned the unions, “or you will tie your image to Pedro Sánchez forever.”
Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox, called the general strike a “campaign for Sánchez.”
Anger over Spain’s housing crisis came to a head in September, after 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her home after its owner sought to raise her rent fivefold. While the landlord eventually agreed to let her return without raising the rent, Abascal died in hospital two weeks after the eviction, before she could move back.
More people have turned to renting as home ownership becomes increasingly out of reach. But renting also remains expensive. Rents increased 87% between 2015 and 2025, while wages increased around 30%, El País reported. The average monthly rent of €1,176 ($1,315) is equivalent to nearly 99% of the average monthly salary of a worker aged 16 to 29, according to the Youth Council of Spain. The average age that a person moves out of their parents’ home and lives independently is now 30.2 years, while the youth emancipation rate has fallen to a record low of 14.5%, according to the council.
Despite those efforts, Sánchez, who is seeking reelection later this month, faces criticism over the migration crisis in Ceuta, where at least 75 people died while attempting to cross from Morocco along with tens of thousands of others earlier this summer. An Oct. 28 train crash in Urda, which killed 69 people, and corruption cases involving people close to Sánchez’s government also loom over the coming election. Polls published Nov. 9 showed Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party trailing PP, and projected that PP and Vox would together secure enough seats to form a majority government.
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