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Squatting in Spain

Squatting in Spain refers to the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. In Francoist Spain migrant workers lived in slums on the periphery of cities. During the Spanish transition to democracy, residential squatting occurred in Spanish cities such as Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Valencia and Zaragoza. From the 1980s onwards a new generation of squatters set up self-managed social centres which hosted events and campaigns. The 1995 Criminal Code among other things criminalised squatting, but failed to stop it. Social centres exist across the country and in Barcelona and Madrid in particular. In the Basque Country they are known as gaztetxes.

Overview
Francoist Spain ended with the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. In the following year, the numbers of people striking increased from 500,000 to over 5 million and social movements blossomed. During the Spanish transition to democracy, residential squatting occurred in cities such as Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Valencia and Zaragoza. In the 1970s, there were self-built informal settlements or slums as new industrialised zones in cities drew working class migrants from rural areas. A contemporary slum is Cañada Real, where an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people live along a 15km track formerly used as a drovers' road, on the boundary shared by Madrid and Rivas Vaciamadrid. Parts of the slum are notorious for drug-dealing. Since it is deemed public land, the squatters are unable to gain possession by usucapión (adverse possession). As of 2017, it took on average eight months for owners to regain properties from squatters. A company called Desokupa ("De-Squat") became notorious for evicting squatters without a legal process, for example La Yaya social centre in Argüelles, Madrid. El Mundo stated in 2018 that there had been over 12,000 reported squats in that year, up from 7,739 in 2013. Barcelona had the most reported squats, with 17,465 reported between 2013 and 2018. ==Okupa==
Okupa
, overlooking Barcelona|alt=Roof of squat, painted with the slogan "occupy and resist" Young people were attracted to the new 1980s squatting movement and began to set up self-managed social centres, known as CSOAs (Centros Sociales Okupados y Autogestionados), which hosted infoshops and co-operatives, organised events and provided meeting space for campaigns. The letter "k" is seldom used in Spanish, so squatter activists used it to signify their radicality and their difference to mainstream culture. The social centres has their antecedents in libertarian ateneus, countercultural spaces which were founded in many cities from the late 1970s onwards. The squatter movement experienced a resurgence in the early 2010s as a result of the anti-austerity 15-M Movement. As of 2013, there were over thirty squatted social centres in Madrid. Patio Maravillas was active from 2007 until 2015 in several different buildings. La Ingobernable was evicted in 2020 during the state of alarm due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. The number of squatted social centres in Barcelona grew from under thirty in the 1990s to around sixty in 2014, as recorded by Info Usurpa (a weekly activist agenda). Another long-running squat is Can Masdeu, which survived a concerted eviction attempt in 2002. Eleven occupiers suspended themselves off the walls of the building for several days. The eviction of Kukutza in Bilbao was met with largescale protests in 2011. On the outskirts of Vitoria-Gasteiz, the squatted neighbourhood of Errekaleor was occupied in 2013 and has around 150 inhabitants. ==Gallery==
Gallery
File:occupied house in barcelona 1.jpg|Kasa de la Muntanya, Barcelona-Vallcarca (2006) File:Barcelona okupa Can Vies.jpg|C.S.A. Can Vies, Barcelona-Sants (2007) File:Barcelona okupa Ruina Amalia.jpg|Ruïna Amàlia, Barcelona (2007) File:Barcelona okupa Bahia.jpg|Interior of Bahía, Barcelona-Sants (2007) File:Can Masdeu - Centro Social Ocupado con huertos.JPG|Can Masdeu, Barcelona-Collserola (2009) File:Feminist squat in spain.jpg|The former building of Eskalera Karakola, feminist squat in Madrid (2007) File:Mural de MP5 en el Patio Maravillas (8584742665).jpg|Mural on exterior of Patio Maravillas (2013) File:Kukutza_Gaztetxea.jpg|Kukutza III, Errekalde, Bilbao (2005) ==Housing movement==
Housing movement
As a result of the Great Recession in the late 2000s, over 50% of young people aged between 16 and 34 were still living with their parents in 2011, since they were unable to afford to buy or rent. Despite the cost of renting being at relatively high level, the number of empty properties rocketed to 3.5 million out of a total of 35 million, again in 2011. ==See also==
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