Sol maintains the pulse after the Government's decrees and calls for a general strike for housing: "This goes beyond Maricarmen"

The first large assembly of the Puerta del Sol encampment set the next step for the housing mobilization this Tuesday. Hundreds of people have supported maintaining the protest, extending it throughout the country, and working towards a general strike that brings the rental crisis to workplaces.

The meeting began around 6:30 PM next to the Bear and Strawberry Tree statue, a few hours after the Council of Ministers approved two decrees with measures on evictions and rents. The spokesperson for the Tenants' Union of Madrid, Valeria Racu, attributed these advances and Maricarmen's return to the accumulated pressure during the last few days.

"We have generated a state crisis. This is a paradigm shift," she proclaimed before a crowded square. Racu recalled that the 87-year-old woman will be able to return to the home from which she was evicted last week and warned that many families are still going through similar situations. "The struggle is not over. It will continue until we achieve everything we want," she assured.

Maricarmen sent an audio message to the assembly from the hospital, expressing that she is "extremely proud" and "extremely inspired" by the mobilizations. Attendees received the message with applause and presented her return home as a victory achieved after thousands of people put their bodies in front of the eviction and moved the protest to Sol.

The Union accompanied the assembly with a statement that broadens the focus beyond that eviction. Maricarmen began to lose her home seven years before the Police came to evict her, when she received the first burofax threatening her permanence. Then came the negotiations, the lawyers, the lawsuits, and a prolonged uncertainty that ended up deteriorating her health.

The organization uses that experience to demand stable contracts and prevent millions of tenants from living dependent on the next renewal. "This goes beyond Maricarmen or a decree," several participants summarized during an assembly that has turned the continuity of the protest into a much broader debate.

Sol will continue at least until Friday's vote

The encampment will remain in Puerta del Sol while the collectives study the fine print of the two royal decree-laws and await their parliamentary validation. Among the participants there is still no unanimous decision on the departure date, but the tents will remain at least until Friday, when Congress will hold an extraordinary plenary session to vote on the measures.

The Union has cautiously received the agreement reached between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Sumar. Racu has acknowledged that the announced minimums represent a "paradigm shift", although he has avoided issuing a definitive assessment before knowing the full wording. "We are not going to trust announcements. Until we have the text, we cannot say anything," he warned.

The first decree extends protection against evictions of vulnerable households until 2030, regulates temporary and room rentals, prevents certain speculative purchases by investment funds for two years, and allows requesting an extraordinary extension of up to two years for contracts ending before 2029.

The second incorporates the automatic renewal of rental contracts, one of the great demands of the Union and Sumar. The Government has explained that it has separated this measure because it reached the final stretch of conversations and had been less worked on with the parliamentary groups. This division makes it easier for each block to be voted on separately, although it also leaves automatic renewal more exposed to rejection by Junts or the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).

The spokespersons for the encampment believe that what has been approved represents progress resulting from mobilization, but they refuse to treat it as a closure of the crisis. "Let no one think that this is a definitive end," Racu insisted. The slogan that has prevailed in the square combines vigilance over the decrees with the need to build an organization capable of surviving the camp.

The general strike enters the horizon

The proposal that has received the most support during the assembly has been to move towards a general strike for housing and the cost of living. The plan still lacks a date and does not constitute a formal call, which would require the involvement of the main trade union organizations. For now, it functions as the next horizon of a mobilization that wants to shift the pressure from Sol to the neighborhoods, universities, and workplaces.

"The encampment is wonderful, but one should not fall in love with a tent, but with a struggle," the organizers have argued. The Union will call for demonstrations and rallies next weekend in different cities and demands that indignation be transformed into neighborhood assemblies, organized blocks, and networks capable of responding to each eviction.

The assembly has also been held under the threat spread during the afternoon by neo-Nazi groups and far-right figures. The campers have organized emergency corridors, surveillance points, and escort groups to prevent women from being alone. The National Police maintain a presence at several entrances to the square.

When the ultra messages were reported, hundreds of people responded with the cry of "Madrid will be the tomb of fascism." The meeting continued normally and without the announced irruption of these groups.

Congress will vote on Friday on two texts that still lack a guaranteed majority. Until then, the encampment keeps its tents in Sol, prepares for the weekend mobilizations, and transfers its next demand to the major unions. General Strike Plaza already figures among the improvised streets of the camp.