Spain faces nationwide protests over soaring housing costs

The catalyst for these protests, the death of 87-year-old Maria Carmen in September, forcibly evicted from her apartment when new owners tried to increase her rent by fivefold. It's brought out the whole of the country now in a general strike over Spain's housing crisis. The government has been forced to call a general election because the socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez failed to pass measures in Parliament that would have... protected tenants. I cannot live as I like, have a rent because It's so high, so now I'm living with my parents. Housing is one of the fundamental problems that most of the wages of working people are faced with. The rise in wages is another of the fundamental problems and the combination of both, a drop in housing prices and a rise in wages. But it all goes back, the genesis back to 2008 and the financial crisis when people defaulted on their mortgage loans. People were evacuated. Evicted from their homes and private equity, private enterprises ended up hoovering up enormous amounts of social housing from bankrupt local authorities. It means that Spain is now unaffordable for the majority of Spaniards who want somewhere to live. A lot of family, a lot of friends, and I think it's fair that at least everyone has a house and not that there are real estate groups that have a thousand. Spanish business groups say this protest is all about the election. Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, is supporting the protest as the opposition say that he is trying to find support. Sanchez and his party, the Socialist Party, is behind in the polls in the election. It could end up being the combined votes of the right and the far-right parties that possibly end up forming the next government.