Several hundred people held raucous protests in Madrid and other Spanish cities, calling on MPs to approve measures to tackle a housing crisis in a parliamentary vote on Friday.
Demonstrators rattled keys, blew whistles, banged spoons against pots and chanted slogans in support of the measures in front of Madrid city hall.
The package of measures to be put to a parliamentary vote came after a Madrid pensioner, 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, was evicted from an apartment she had lived in for 70 years, sparking nationwide outrage and demonstrations.
Madrid's city council is controlled by the conservative Popular Party , which has vowed to vote against the package.
"This is the time to listen to people on the streets and stop making partisan calculations," Alicia del Rio spokeswoman for the Madrid Tenants' Union told journalists.
Similar protests were held outside town halls in other cities, including Barcelona and Cordoba.
"It's another way of making our voices heard. Things can't go on as they are," Ivan Mantilla Cuenca, a 28-year-old student who banged a wooden spoon against a lid, told AFP in Madrid.
Parliament is scheduled to vote on a package of measures adopted Tuesday by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government after nationwide protests sparked by Abascal's eviction.
{{/usCountry}}Parliament is scheduled to vote on a package of measures adopted Tuesday by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government after nationwide protests sparked by Abascal's eviction.
{{/usCountry}}They include tighter restrictions on evicting tenants deemed vulnerable and ban companies with "speculative" aims from the real estate market until the end of 2028.
But Sanchez's Socialist-led coalition faces the arduous task of convincing enough parties in a heavily fragmented parliament to approve the decrees.
Sanchez, in power since 2018, urged lawmakers to show "a sense of responsibility" and approve the two decrees.
"Ultimately, I am asking us to put ideology and partisan divisions aside and focus on an issue that is simply about humanity," he said earlier on Thursday.
Unaffordable housing has been a running sore for years in Spain.
Abascal, who has become a symbol of Spain's housing crisis, is due to return to the flat where she lived under a deal reached Monday with its owner.
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