If the weekends are not fulfilled, Jarauta Street in Pamplona is not filled especially with people, but in that part that makes the curve it can be seen that something is happening, as the Municipal Guard is in favor of part, morning, afternoon and night. The Housing Union that is part of the Socialist Council announced on Sunday the occupation of a housing block in the networks. It was about appealing to the neighborhood and making the case public, as they had been living there for several days. The Municipal Guard appears shortly after the call and since then the presence has been constant. The union reports that there is a 24-hour Municipal Guard patrol on the portal and another on the outside.

“At first it seemed that they were going to change the locks and run the evictions, and that was avoided, we believe that thanks to the pressure of the people there,” said ARGIA Iker Narbona, member of the Housing Union. There were also “contradictory” attitudes on the part of police officers, as some Municipal Guard officers indicated that they would immediately evict them, while others were under control. The latter: from the moment the Municipal Guard implemented the access control. In other words, those who leave the house are not allowed to go back.

The property of the building is owned by Pamplona Centro Histórico – Iruña Biziberritzen, a company wholly owned by the City of Pamplona. According to the member of the Housing Union, the City Hall uses the “method of fascist emptying companies”: “They are trying not to be a conventional, pre-planned eviction with a great response from the citizens, but to do it secretly and through a long erosion, so that the situation becomes unsustainable for the residents, to see if they leave the housing, then empty it and change the lock. In the end, they are taking advantage of the vulnerability of the residents”.

Several families live

The Housing Union does not want to specify the number of families or people who have occupied some kind of housing in that building to protect their privacy, but they have announced that they are in “vulnerable situation”. According to the union, there are families with minors who have previously been evicted, either by judicial procedure or through “other procedures”, in which the two families of women victims of gender violence, young people unable to emancipate themselves and not so young people who cannot pay rent contracts with their salaries also coexist. “They are very diverse profiles, but in the end it is a reflection of a structural problem: the problems of the proletariat in the access to housing,” says the union.

Not all the building has been occupied; on one floor there are neighbors. “They have told the police that they have been living in the building for days before Sunday, so they have told the police that what they are doing is illegal.” The remaining recently occupied buildings in the building had been empty years in most cases.

“It’s an illegal eviction”

The members of the Housing Union have come to the City Hall, but they have not wanted to listen. Then, on Monday afternoon, they went to the offices of the company that owns the building, Iruña Biziberritzen, creating a fuss and getting to talk to a representative. They put the demands on them, but they have not been answered.

The first thing it asks is that access control be removed, that is, that people be allowed access and exit, because they are fundamental rights. They do not know, moreover, whether judicial proceedings are underway: “We have not seen orders, nor complaints... That is why all people’s formal rights are being violated. If you want to evict yourself, there should be a judicial proceeding.”

Concentration on Tuesday night

In the afternoon, a protest was called at Jarauta Street in Pamplona to denounce the “illegal eviction” and to show solidarity with those inside. In addition to the Municipal Police, the Foral Police and the Spanish Police have visited Jarauta Street, as Gedar reported in the networks.