MADRID, Spain – Spain returns to a general strike on 11 November with housing a burning issue and unions mobilising people just two days before the start of the election campaign for 29 November, marking the country’s first such mobilisation since November 2012, still under Mariano Rajoy’s first government.
Mass Protests Across Spain: Thousands March Calling For General Strike
The march will coincide with a period in which Europe has taken to the streets, with France, Belgium and even Greece as reference points, while stoppages have also been recurrent in Portugal, with cuts or labour and education reforms among the main reasons.
Belgium, for example, is one of the countries with the greatest mobilising power and has already counted five general strikes since 2025, to which Friday’s call is added. The aim in all of them is to protest against the government’s budget cuts, with sectoral stoppages in areas such as transport, waste collection, education and health gradually joining these mobilisations.
Police investigate chemical attacks against Ceuta residents during peaceful protest
Class consciousness in the country spans all ideologies, with unions ranging from social democracy and anarchism to Christian democracy. Last year saw four major stoppages: the January 2026 strike was a 24-hour general strike against pension reforms, the 31 March one was an interprofessional general strike, the 14 October one paralysed much of air and public transport, and the November one was a three-day general strike across all sectors, with another march now added in protest at cuts amid negotiations over the national budget.
