MADRID: Thousands of Spaniards left their workplaces and hit the streets on Wednesday as a general strike sought to crank up pressure on the key issue of housing weeks before a snap election.
Unions reported a "massive" uptake in Spain's first nationwide 24-hour stoppage since 2012, which also aims to up the ante on wages and public services, but business leaders played down the participation.
In Madrid, where many shops opened as normal, demonstrators rallied in the touristic centre and blocked some roads in pickets that were replicated across the country.
Jaime Vazquez, a 48-year-old technician who repairs industrial machinery, told AFP in the Spanish capital that he had downed tools "to ask for a decent home and the regulation of rent prices" as housing costs spiral.
