Palma protestors fail to stop family’s eviction

POLICE Officers prevented 15-M demonstrators from obstructing the eviction of an African woman and her two young children from a house in Palma.

The eviction of Calle Beatriz de Pinos 21 was ordered as she had not paid the mortgage on the property for two years.

About 30 of the protestors, dubbed los indignados (indignant ones) left Plaza de las Columnas to block the entrance of the building where they were joined by some 30 more neighbours.

Four National Police and two Local Police patrols arrived to allow the judicial authorities and the locksmith to pass.

Officers informed the protestors that there was a court order for the eviction and that they would use force if necessary to carry out the law.

The ‘indignants’ responded that the eviction was violating Article 47 of the Constitution which states that all Spanish citizens are entitled to decent housing and that they were simply enforcing the Constitution.

In the end officers were able to push through the crowd and carry out the eviction. This is the second time Palma protestors have failed to stop an eviction. On Friday a woman and her 8-year-old daughter were evicted, after the indignados has managed to prevent a previous attempt by police, on June 16.

And on July 11, 20 protestors prevented the eviction of a Nigerian woman and her two children from her Palma flat.

Although it is believed that the anti-eviction movement will no longer be able to prevent evictions by court order, the protestors have assured that they will continue to do all that they can to uphold the Spanish Constitution. 

By Nicole Hallett