At 8th May the Platform of Citizens Affected by Mortgages (PAH) presented a new campaign to reclaim solutions to the dramatic housing crisis: The PAH plans to hold peaceful demonstrations (“escraches”) in electoral events during the European Parliament elections campaign.
http://afectadosporlahipoteca.com/2014/05/12/message-to-europe-stop-evictions/
According to PAH homeowners in Spain are liable for 40% of the valuation of the house, plus interests and judicial costs, even once their house has been foreclosed. This leaves evicted families with huge life-long debts. “In a country with 27 percent unemployment rate, the consequences of this law are dramatic”, PAH sais in a statement. “Since the start of the crisis, there have been 500,000 foreclosures and 184 evictions per day, and the situation of hundreds of thousands of families is critical. Many lives are at stake.”
The PAH is part of the “European Action Coalition for Housing Rights and the City” network , linking various European protests for a more democratic and social transformation of European structures and urban development based on the rights of citizens.
“We believe that the right to housing should be guaranteed globally and the goal of the new campaign is to push for it in the European context”, PAH sais. “We believe in a Europe of citizens, a Europe that guarantees the basic right to adequate housing and gives more priority to the interest of people than to the interests of the banks.”