Union and tenant participation across the country

Spain's general strike brought out millions of people across the country in a nationwide 24-hour stoppage, backed by the country's largest unions as well as tenants' associations. Union figures pointed to heavy participation in key sectors:

• •90% participation in the automotive and port sectors
• •82% in waste collection
• •Strongest support in coastal regions such as Catalonia and Andalusia, where housing costs are especially high

Participation was uneven nationally, the unions said. Sandra Mora of the Madrid Tenants' Union told RNE that workers who rent or pay mortgages should remember they are the ones able to halt production and bring the economy to a standstill.

What tenants' unions are demanding

The stoppage's official slogan is "Salaries. Housing. Prices". Tenants' unions are demanding limits on the evictions of vulnerable people, rent freezes and a crackdown on short-term rentals. Unai Sordo, head of the Workers' Commissions union, told Cadena Ser radio: "There is one issue that is dividing the country: the struggle to access housing."

Public anger over housing prices surged in September after the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, who had lived in her home for more than seven decades. Protests and encampments followed, spotlighting a market where rents rose 80% within a decade while the cost of homes climbed 63%. In Granada, the tenants' union vandalised about 300 lockboxes belonging to short-term rentals in the city's most touristed areas before the strike, writing on social media: "No to capitalists, no to rent-seekers, no to their accomplices."

Ayuso accuses strikers as Sánchez defends the stoppage

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the rightwing leader of the Madrid region, accused striking workers of "holding citizens hostage" and said "Everything is chaotic, everything is gridlocked." Rightwing parties had said before the strike that unions were trying to help Sánchez remain in office.

Ayuso herself has faced questions this year over her administration's alleged spending of €6.3m (£5.4m) of public funds on a residential penthouse for use as a temporary office. She said she told People's party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whom polls suggest will be the next prime minister: "I spoke to Feijóo and I told him: 'Promise me this garbage will end.'"

Sánchez answered the strikers' critics by posting a video crediting the labour movement and the right to strike for gains such as the eight-hour workday and national health insurance, saying: "It wasn't easy, but they changed Spain."

Disruption, arrests and weather alerts

The stoppage disrupted daily life across the country. Many schools and universities were closed or working at minimal capacity, and in Madrid the strike added to an ongoing teachers' strike that began nearly a month earlier to demand better working conditions.

In Barcelona, workers set up roadblocks – some with burning tyres – as public transport came to a near-standstill. Scuffles broke out between picketers and police near Madrid's main wholesale market, and demonstrators blocked traffic with recycling bins; by midday Wednesday, government officials said 27 people had been arrested over minor incidents across the country. Spain's state meteorological agency issued 14 alerts for two storms expected to bring strong winds, rough seas and heavy rains, threatening the afternoon marches.

The country now heads to a general election on 29 November, called after rightwing parties blocked emergency housing legislation, with polls suggesting a rightwing coalition between the People's party and Vox is the most likely outcome.