Fresh protests over housing flare in Spain after lawmakers reject relief measures

Fresh protests over housing flared in Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday, a day after parliament narrowly rejected the government's proposed relief measures for tenants. The rallies by tens of thousands of protesters extended a crisis that has gone on for more than a week, triggered by the September 23 forced expulsion of a pensioner from her Madrid flat. The government introduced the measures after nationwide protests following the eviction, on a stretcher, of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid apartment she had occupied for around seven decades. The defeat was another political setback for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and has renewed questions over whether his minority government can survive until the next scheduled general election in 2027. Read moreSpanish lawmakers vote down affordable housing bills in blow to Sanchez’s government Catalan separatist party Junts – whose support was essential to approve the two decrees – voted against them, arguing they lacked rigour. After the vote, the leader of the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Nunez Feijoo, urged Sanchez to "call elections as soon as possible". After eight years in powe...