‘Now is the moment’: housing activists at Madrid encampment pin wary hopes on Spain’s early election

Campaigners set up in more than 1,200 tents in Puerto del Sol square say challenge now is to translate a groundswell of public support into concrete change

At a makeshift lunch counter tucked within a maze of tents at a housing protest camp in Madrid, Sélpide San Luis pointed to the dizzying pace of change. “We built a city in a week,” said the 26-year-old, whose videos documenting day-to-day life at the encampment have attracted tens of thousands of views on social media, as she pointed to the more than 1,200 tents set up in the central Puerta del Sol square.

“We have urban planning, the streets have names and we’ve put surveillance systems in place. And thanks to what we’re doing here, media have not stopped talking about the issue of housing – something that we’ve been trying to get on the agenda for so long.”