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The people of Malaga are being called to a new demonstration in demand of decent and affordable housing. Organised by the Málaga Para Vivir platform, the march will take place on Saturday 5 April at 11.30am. Given the success of the previous two protests (29 June and 9 November of 2024), when more than 10,000 people took to the streets to demand a response to the housing crisis, the organisers hope that the citizens of Malaga will turn out in force once again.
The demonstration will coincide with a series of protests influenced by the housing issue that will take place in several Spanish cities. According to Kike España from Málaga Para Vivir, the initiative aims to amplify its impact and show that housing "has become the most important problem for the people".
As in the previous two demonstrations, the march will start from the Plaza de la Merced, with banners reading "Let's put an end to the housing business". Although the exact route has not been decided yet, organisers have said that the upcoming demonstration will potentially not finish at the Plaza de la Constitución, but in one of the city's neighbourhoods instead.
The escalation of prices in the real estate market does not cease and the measures implemented by different administrations to alleviate the housing problem are considered "totally inefficient sticking plasters". For that reason, Málaga Para Vivir members have decided to start a new round of mobilisations in Malaga, which will begin with neighbourhood assemblies and culminate on 5 April. Once again, the focus of the protest will be "on the housing crisis and the city model, which is based on real estate and tourist speculation, which expels its inhabitants, makes employment precarious and destroys the city," said Noemi Escobar, spokesperson for the movement.
The platform has not proposed specific measures or solutions, as it understands this protest as an amendment to the whole. "The core issue on which all the collectives that organise these protests agree is that housing has to stop being treated as a business; it has to be a right," said España. According to these citizens' platforms, even public housing construction plans are "a trap" because they "feed the housing bubble and put more money in the pockets of developers".
In their agenda, Málaga Para Vivir include the demand for eradication of the "city model", that has been implemented in Malaga over the last few decades, comparing it to a "scam". "Everything in these last decades has been done to turn the centre of Malaga into a tourist amusement park that only benefits a few, while banishing the locals," said España.
Málaga Para Vivir activists have pointed out the aggravation of the housing crisis by tourist rentals. "In the area around the Plaza de la Merced, eight out of ten homes are for tourist rentals. In the city, there are 34,466 people registered as housing-seekers, while there are 7,496 tourist accommodations with 32,132 places available. Does anyone think this is sustainable?", asked Escobar. "On 5 April, we will take to the streets again to demand an end to the housing business and to this model of city planning. Malaga is for living, not for turning it into an amusement park," the association stated.
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