[audio is in English]
PHOTO: People hold a banner during a demonstration
against evictions in Malaga, southern Spain, last month. (Photo by Jon
Nazca/Reuters.)
Spanish banks looking to foreclose on delinquent mortgage
owners in and around Pamplona will no longer have the assistance of the
community's locksmiths. Last month, they announced they would no longer change
the locks on people banks want to evict.
In Spain, in 2012, more than
50,000 families were evicted from their homes when they failed to pay their rent
or mortgage.
As the year wound down, a handful of people committed
suicide after learning they would be evicted. Now, in Pamplona, a group of
experts who help carry out the evictions has said ‘No more.’ Those experts?
Locksmiths.
راه حل خلاقانه و همبستگی صمیمانه برای جلوگیری از تخلیه کردن خانه های مردم توسط بانکها وقتی دیگر توده ها نمیتوانند به بانکها پولی بابت خانه های قسطی خریداری شده بپردازند
It’s a pretty ingenious way to stop evictions,
really.
The police might come and drag debtors out. But if no one changes
the locks on the apartment, the bank can’t repossess it, because the evictees
can get back in.
And the legal proceedings to get them out again would
take months, even years.
Banks and government authorities have been
evicting an average of two families a day in recent months in and around
Pamplona. Locksmiths like Iker de Carlos are hoping to put an end to it. De
Carlos says in this small city, the dozen or so locksmiths often know the people
they have to lock out.
De Carlos told a local TV station that locksmiths
worked often with the police and bailiffs, evicting families or elderly folks
who barely had time to get their pants on before being put out on the
street.
De Carlos says he and his fellow locksmiths decided last month
that they could no longer ignore such suffering.
“We’re people,” he said,
“and as people we can’t continue carrying out evictions when people are killing
themselves.”
De Carlos was referring to the suicide of a woman last fall,
outside Pamplona. As authorities, including Judge Juan Carlos Mediavilla, were
arriving to evict her, she jumped from her balcony. Just after her death Judge
Mediavilla spoke out publicly.
“We can’t let economic problems devolve
into tragedies like this,” Mediavilla said.
The judge called on the
government to revise existing laws so the growing number of Spaniards who can’t
pay their mortgages don’t end up on the street.
Spain’s center right
government initially said it would take immediate steps to protect about 600,000
of the country’s most vulnerable, including families with small children and the
elderly.
A law was passed allowing some people to negotiate lower
payments with banks. But it excludes retirees and any single mothers with a
child over 3 years old.
And activists say banks, which had promised to
ease up on evictions to avoid a social disaster, have not done so.
The
social tension over evictions has led to protests across the country, and grows
as unemployment rises further.
But the locksmiths of Pamplona say their
tiny rebellion may be the most effective way to stop evictions, even if its only
one lock at a
time.
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