For the rest, kcurie is your man - he actually lives there.

Note that Spain has a Socialist government and that Catalonia's regional government is Socialist+Green Left+Republican Left, and the youth organisation of ERC cross-pollinates with the squatter movement. The mayor of Barcelona is also a Socialist, though I am not sure about a coalition in the city council.

Regarding urban renewal, the article you quote and yourself imagine that the squatter movement is motivated by an opposition to  gentrification, when in fact the point is to oppose absentee ownership.

Bush is a symptom, not the disease.