Spain Creates Board to Pre-Approve Evictions Based on How Many People Might Show Up to Object
Officials say the new committee will measure public outrage in advance, then adjust its own math until the numbers work out.
The Ministry of Housing confirmed this week that no eviction notice can be finalized until it clears a new interagency body, the National Protest Turnout Board, whose sole function is to estimate how many citizens will assemble outside the property in question.
According to the board's charter, an eviction proceeds only if projected crowd size falls beneath a threshold that the board reserves the right to redefine after the crowd has already gathered. A spokesperson described the process as "forward-looking, in the sense that we look at the footage afterward and decide what we should have predicted."
Local officials say the board will also maintain a rotating subcommittee dedicated to reviewing complaints about the board's own scheduling delays, which have already pushed its first ruling into a session about whether it needs another session.
Housing advocates welcomed the announcement cautiously, noting that while no eviction has technically been blocked yet, several have simply been rescheduled pending the board's determination of what a crowd is.
The ministry says the system is temporary, pending a full review by a task force that has not yet been asked to review anything.