Inda links Inquilinas spokesman in Sol to €80 million

The spokesman of Inquilinas in Sol and the €80 million in real estate

Cockroaches in the flat, cockroaches in Sol. And right in Puerta del Sol, a spokesman for the Tenants Union (Sindicato de Inquilinas) whom Eduardo Inda attributes with €80 million in real estate companies. Insects on one side, megaphone on the other. The cocktail sums up the episode that has left the tenants' movement exposed.

The trigger was a video broadcast on Horizonte, Iker Jiménez's programme, in which Eduardo Inda claimed on camera that this spokesman has €80 million dedicated to real estate companies he described as "vultures". In the same space, pressure on the company Urbagestión was mentioned, though the extent of that pressure is not specified in what was broadcast.

What is known about the cockroach episode?

Little, and nothing confirmed. The mention of cockroaches in the flat and in Sol appears in the debate without further details, no known author and no complaint that has come to light.

It is the kind of gesture that works on social media and ages badly in court. Because what matters is not the anecdote, but what it reveals: a battle over housing that has shifted from negotiation tables to staging, and where each side seeks the headline that shames the other.

The underlying thesis: Turchin and elite overproduction

The framework cited in the debate is that of historian Peter Turchin and his idea of elite overproduction. When an entire generation aspires to positions of influence and the system has no room for everyone, some of those aspirants seek an outlet in breakaway movements. It is not a theory about the poor: it is a theory about people with education, time and family networks competing for a limited number of seats.

The corollary cited from memory: those who cause trouble are not the ones at the bottom, they are the marginalised elites. And it fits a scene that some participants describe with a smirk: full days at kilometre zero, plenty of cultural capital and a standard of living that the payslip does not explain. The origin of those protesting does not cancel the rental problem. What it does is cast doubt on who represents it.

Grandsons of a marquis and granddaughters of a former minister

Behind that suspicion, pedigrees emerge. It is claimed that one of the union's spokeswomen is the granddaughter of a former minister and from a family with wealth; another activist leader is said to be the grandson of a marquis with a genuine title, not metaphorical. None of this is verified, and it is worth remembering before turning it into a verdict.

The striking thing is the use of the data. If family wealth disqualifies those who protest, politics becomes a matter of surnames, and then no one is left with the authority to speak about rental prices.

The unsettling figure

The number that holds up is that of the €80 million: a round, televised and repeated figure, which has not been accompanied by a single public document breaking it down. And there lies the uncomfortable part for everyone. If the figure is true, the megaphone of Sol has a serious credibility problem. If it is false, so does whoever launched it in prime time. For now, the only shared certainty is that no one has shown the papers.