Madrid's Puerta del Sol housing campers end occupation after 40 days

Dozens of people began removing their tents from Madrid's Puerta del Sol on Sunday, ending a housing protest camp that had lasted 40 days. The decision followed a vote by most of the movement's commissions on Saturday to dissolve and shift their activities to the city's neighborhoods.

The campers said they wanted to transform into a social and working-class movement known as the 26S movement. They also pledged to keep organizing regardless of who wins the November 29 congressional elections.

“From Acampada 26S we began the call 'move to the neighborhoods' to transform into a social and working-class movement, understood as the 26S movement, thus ending our activity at Puerta del Sol.”

The next immediate goal is preparing the general strike scheduled for November 11. Participants described the occupation as a successful experiment in self-organization and said they were cleaning the areas they had occupied.

One camper, Adrián Ruiz, told TVE that his neighborhood section, nicknamed 'La Manzana,' had about 20 tents but many more people. He explained that the camp used a rotating system because participants worked and had other lives.

The encampment had featured named neighborhoods and streets, along with murals demanding improvements to the rental and housing markets. Many of those signs have already been taken down, though the full dismantling of all assemblies will happen gradually.

The protest emerged after the high-profile eviction of Maricarmen on September 23 and was part of a wider wave of housing mobilizations across 27 Spanish cities. The movement also coincided with four housing decrees, two of which failed, and an early election call.

The campers issued their statement through Europa Press on Saturday, saying they were ending their activity at Puerta del Sol while moving their struggle to the neighborhoods.