Spain's first general strike in 14 years brought millions of workers out on Wednesday in a push for action on the housing crisis and the rising cost of living, with the stoppage timed less than three weeks before a snap national election that could bring the far right to power.

Transport disrupted, picket incidents in Barcelona and Madrid

The Spain general strike was expected to delay the country's widely used public transport system and slow or close businesses, factories and shops across Spain, the eurozone's fourth-largest economy.

The early hours brought minor incidents. In Barcelona, picketers set up roadblocks, some of them with burning tires, and workers set off fireworks in the city's squares at midnight. Near Madrid's main wholesale market, scuffles broke out between picketers and police.

Unions report high turnout in ports, car plants and waste collection

UGT and CCOO cited significant stoppages in strategic sectors as the measure of the strike's reach. Their reported participation figures:

• •90 percent in the automotive and port sectors
• •85 percent in the meat industry
• •82 percent in waste collection
• •75 percent in the energy sector

The strike's official slogan is "Salaries. Housing. Prices."

What the strikers are demanding

Average rents in Spain have almost doubled over the last 10 years, and public anger over housing intensified last month after the televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman known as Maricarmen from her Madrid home. Her subsequent death made her a symbol of the housing crisis.

Housing activists leveraged the uproar over her eviction to call the general strike, winning the backing of UGT and CCOO. The activists demand the elimination of tourist apartments, a crackdown on real estate speculation and automatic lease renewals for renters. The unions are demanding more government intervention in the housing market and a new minimum wage agreement negotiated with the business owners' association.

Nationwide protests over Maricarmen's eviction pushed the government to pass emergency measures limiting evictions and helping tenants, but right-wing parties in Parliament refused to ratify them, arguing they would drive properties out of the rental market.

A strike read through the campaign

The strike landed in a campaign that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called on October 5, hoping to earn four more years in power for his left-wing coalition. Months of polling have shown voters leaning toward the Right, and right-wing parties already govern together in some Spanish regions. A high-speed train collision that killed 69 people, Spain's second deadly rail disaster of the year, has dominated the news and weighed on Sánchez's campaign.

Analyst Oriol Bartomeus, a professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said the Socialists need a peaceful strike so the campaign returns to housing.

Bartomeus added that the Popular Party and Vox want the strike to end in scenes of disorder so they can present themselves as restoring order.

The conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox oppose government intervention in housing other than incentivizing new construction, and argue the unions are playing politics to keep Sánchez in office. Popular Party spokesperson Miguel Tellado said on Tuesday: "This strike is not a general strike; it is an electoral strike."

Sánchez posted a video lauding past social policies such as the 40-hour work week and national health insurance, warning that right-wing parties would bring austerity. "It wasn't easy, but they changed Spain," he said.

Veronica Martinez, spokesperson for junior coalition member Sumar, separately said: "The Left needs the workers of this country to mobilise. Rights are first won on the streets and then later in the institution."

On Thursday, the government will again ask a reduced interim Parliament to ratify the two housing decrees that the full lower chamber rejected last month.