A Madrid magistrate has declined jurisdiction over the regional government's appeal against the Puerta del Sol camp. The case now goes to the TSJM, which has 48 hours to decide whether it can hear the request for urgent measures.
The Community of Madrid's appeal over the housing camp at Madrid's Puerta del Sol will not be heard by the magistrate who received it. The case now moves to the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid, known as the TSJM. Once the competent court takes up the matter, it has 48 hours to rule on the urgent application.
The first-instance judge said the appeal concerns alleged inaction by the Government Delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín. The regional government says Martín failed to use the powers available to him and describes the camp as a persistent illegal occupation of Puerta del Sol.
In a statement dated 1 October, the Community of Madrid asked for immediate measures against what it calls an illegal occupation of public space. It sought “cautelarísimas” measures, an exceptionally urgent order seeking the camp's immediate dissolution and evacuation.
The first-instance court declined jurisdiction. The order says the case concerns an alleged failure to act by an organ of the State's peripheral administration. Challenges of this kind do not fall within the authority of the instance courts: the body involved does not exercise power across the entire national territory, and the case has no determined financial amount.
The parties have been summoned before the TSJM. They must appear and defend their positions there, or the appeal will expire.
All parties consulted by the magistrate supported that procedural route, including the lawyer representing the Community of Madrid. The transfer does not settle the underlying dispute or order the camp's removal; it sends the legal challenge to the court the first judge considers competent.
The dispute has already taken on a strong political charge. Isabel Díaz Ayuso said the regional government would go to court over what she called the Government Delegate's inaction at the settlement promoted by the Sindicato de Inquilinas.
During a session of the Madrid Assembly, Ayuso said access should at least remain clear enough for ambulances and ordinary movement around the square. She also referred to complaints from shopkeepers and people with pushchairs.
Ayuso made the judicial move after issuing a 48-hour ultimatum to the central government. Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida also said the city could consider legal action if the protest continued.
Martín has rejected that account. The Government Delegate said the authorities were taking the steps they considered appropriate and that the camp was fully respecting the legal order.
His office says it will protect the fundamental right to peaceful assembly while maintaining security around the Real Casa de Correos, a protected cultural building and the seat of Madrid's regional government. Its position puts the right to protest in tension with the authorities' duties to protect the site and maintain public access. The TSJM now faces a narrow procedural question. The political consequences are immediate.
The camp is also linked to planned demonstrations over housing measures. An earlier Sol report described preparations for a march from Puerta del Sol to Congress during a vote on two housing decrees.
The protest is linked to the Sindicato de Inquilinas. It grew out of a wider dispute over evictions and housing policy, with the right to demonstrate also at issue. The site has so become both a public-space dispute and a prominent setting for the housing campaign.
So far, the court has made a limited procedural decision. The Madrid instance court will not resolve the original appeal. The TSJM's 48-hour window sets a clear deadline for the urgent application, but only if the higher court considers itself competent to hear the case.
The claims about public access and government inaction remain open, as does the question of the camp's legality. As reported by El País, Madrid's municipal government has also taken interest because the encampment could remain in place.
Ayuso's legal initiative has moved forward by one step. The eviction has not happened.
