PROTESTERS were forced out of the 'bad bank' head office in Madrid yesterday after storming the building in support of a group of people about to have their homes repossessed.
Some 40 members of the Plataforma de Afectados de la Hipoteca ('Mortgage Victims' Association') gathered outside the door of the SAREB building, which is where bank restructuring decisions are made and which has threatened to buy banks' stocks of repossessed homes off them at a fraction of their market price unless they are sold.
But another 30 managed to get inside and started spraying graffiti around the room.
When police intervened, they refused to leave or to identify themselves, and were finally arrested and charged with public disturbance and disobedience of authority.
Also yesterday, a group of PAH members were thrown out after managing to get into the Parliament building and calling for the government to change the law so that those whose homes are repossessed have their mortgage debt wiped out, rather than still having to pay it even though they are homeless.
And 200 or so gathered around the court where this group was being tried for public disturbance.
The PAH has already staged protests outside the homes of minister of justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, and manager of the PP Esteban González Pons.
Last month, the PAH and other groups, including Stop Desahucios ('stop evictions') managed to get the government to agree to table a motion for the law to be changed to allow homeowners in debt to wipe out their entire mortgage by handing back their keys.
But they have already been told the PP government intends to vote against the motion, and as they are in the majority, it will not go through.
Other protests in the last few months have been held at Madrid's Atocha station, where booing, hissing and cat-calling met politicians as they arrived.
