Fifteen years isn’t enough for a generation, but it seems it is the right amount of time for a “political cycle.” In Spain, activists and progressive academics have in recent years often spoken of the exhaustion of the political cycle that began with the Indignados protests, known as 15-M (so named after May 15, 2011, the first day of protest), and continued with the foundation of Podemos and its rapid growth, until the formation of the first broad-left coalition in 2019.

This cycle has borne many results and led to a self-styled “progressive government” that presided over a period of steady economic growth. However, many issues have remained unresolved, and new strains have emerged in Spanish society that have fueled discontent at the institutional left and the limits of government policy. Housing is the issue that shows this most clearly.

Today we may finally see the beginning of a new political cycle: one that, to paraphrase Karl Marx, wears the robes of the foregoing political cycle, while in fact carrying a more radical content. Curiously, the starting point of the 26-S protests (from September 26, the first day of square occupations after massive protests called by the tenants’ union, Sindicato de Inquilinas) shares the same symbolic rallying place as 15-M, the Puerta del Sol in central Madrid.