Catalonia led the number of evictions ordered in Spain in 2012

Barcelona (ACN).- Catalan first instance courts ordered 25,422 evictions last year, according to data released on Friday by the Spanish Judicial Power Council (CGPJ). Evictions in Catalonia represented 25.1% of the total number in Spain, which reached 101,034 judicial orders. The figure includes home evictions but also that of shops and states. Two weeks ago the European Court of Justice declared the Spanish Mortgage Law to be abusive towards citizens. Immediately, the Spanish Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, stated that it will be changed. However, a month ago the People’s Party – which runs the Spanish Government – was about to reject a popular legislative initiative, which had gathered 1.5 million signatures that wanted to modify the Mortgage Law to stop evictions, from being debated in the Spanish Parliament. In fact, home evictions have increasingly become a social drama in Catalonia and in the whole of Spain, particularly over the last two years, as the crisis became harsher. Some people have even killed themselves before being thrown out of their homes for not being able to pay the mortgage. As a reaction to this, in 2009, a platform to unite people affected by house evictions was created in Barcelona under the name ‘Plataforma d’Afectats per la Hipoteca’ (PAH). The PAH has managed to stop hundreds of evictions throughout Catalonia and Spain.

Catalonia was the Autonomous Community with the highest number of evictions having been ordered, with a population of some 7.5 million people. The number of 25,422 evictions ordered in Catalonia was clearly much higher than the 14,549 ordered in the Community of Madrid, with a population of some 6.5 million inhabitants. Andalusia, with a population of some 8.5 million, came third with 13,638 evictions and the Valencian Country (also called Valencian Community) came fourth with 13,199 orders and a population of some 5 million.