As many as 4 million workers across Spain walked off the job Wednesday, in the country’s first general strike in 14 years, to demand urgent government action on housing amid the skyrocketing cost of living. The eviction and subsequent death of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, who was forced out of the Madrid apartment she’d lived in for seven decades after her corporate landlord raised the rent, set off weeks of nationwide protests and encampments. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for Nov. 29, after his emergency housing measures meant to quell the movement failed in Congress. The right-wing People’s Party currently leads in the polls.

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