Housing Demo

Luxembourg, march 2021.

Organizers manifest:

We are those who depend on work for our livelihood.
We are those who struggle to pay our rent or our loan.
We are those who suffer multiple discriminations in the housing market on the basis of ethnic origin, colour, age, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. 
We are those who have not inherited any property from our parents. 
We are those who live in thermal sieves. Thermal sieves that burn our money, warm the climate and ruin our health. 
We are the ones who risk losing access to a roof over our heads and a habitable planet under our feet.
And we are the ones who have a home, but know that soaring property prices threaten our children.

We refuse to be ashamed any longer. We are not the ones who should be ashamed. Those who amass billions of euros through speculation and tax evasion should be ashamed. It is for speculators to be ashamed! Those who treat land and housing as financial assets and not as vital rights. And it is above all our successive governments that should be ashamed, because they are the ones who have been rolling out the red carpet in front of speculators for almost 30 years. Today, 8 out of 10 people are more concerned about the soaring property prices in Luxembourg than about COVID19, according to a TNS-ILRES survey.

We have had enough!

Enough of having to spend half of our income (or even more) on housing!
Enough of the half measures proposed by the government, which will not solve Luxembourg's housing crisis!
Enough that the right to private property is enshrined in the Luxembourg constitution, but not the right to housing!
Enough of not being able to buy a house with two average salaries and of having to cross the border to find affordable housing!
Enough of being 50 million families in fuel poverty in Europe, who have to choose between paying our rent, heating or food!
Enough of the 38 million empty homes when 700,000 people sleep on the streets every night in Europe, when we could house everyone without having to cut down a single tree or concrete any agricultural land!

This is why we call on all of you to participate in the 2nd national demonstration for access to decent and affordable housing in Luxembourg City on 27 March 2021, European Day for the Right to Housing. And we will not be alone, because in several European cities, citizens will be walking with us!

In Luxembourg, this pluralist demonstration is being led by more than 20 associations, political movements and trade unions who have been fighting for years on this issue. This spring, let's create the surprise and put the people who work to live at the centre of the debates and at the centre of the decisions

Photos: Fuji XT4 & X100f