Lefties Did It

This article is part of The Home Front, a special report on housing in Europe, from POLITICO’s Global Policy Lab: Living Cities. Sign up here.

BRUSSELS — One of Europe’s long-simmering political frustrations is suddenly boiling over.

From Lisbon to Łódź, voters are angry about the lack of affordable housing. Anti-immigrant riots broke out in Dublin last fall, fueled in part by claims that the Irish capital’s limited public housing was being given to foreigners. Meanwhile, in cities like Lisbon, Amsterdam and Milan, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to denounce the lack of affordable homes.

In a poll ahead of last week’s far-right surge in the European Parliament election, the Continent’s mayors listed housing as one of the most important issues facing their constituencies.

“We’ve reached the breaking point of a situation that has been on a slow burn for years,” said Sorcha Edwards, the secretary-general of Housing Europe, which represents public, cooperative and social housing providers. “For a long time, politicians were happy to ignore the issue because it affected low-income groups that vote with less force, but now it’s affecting people that take note: The offspring of the middle class and even the middle class itself.”

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