A protest camp in Madrid grew to include dozens of tents on Sunday after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her lifelong home sparked outrage over gaps in tenant protections.
Images of Maricarmen Abascal being carried from her Madrid flat on a stretcher after police broke down her door on Wednesday have thrust Spain’s housing crisis back into the spotlight ahead of a general election due in 2027.
Thousands marched through Madrid on Saturday, rattling keys and blowing whistles as they called for measures to curb rising housing costs and make evictions more difficult.
“You could be the next Maricarmen,” read one banner at the rally.
Authorities put the turnout at around 25,000, while the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which organised the protest, said more than 300,000 people took part.
After the march, activists set up camp in Puerta del Sol square in the city centre. The union urged more people to join them.
“It’s time to change the rules of the game,” said Maria Juarez, a 47-year-old psychologist. “People aren’t going to leave until something changes once and for all.”
Police looked on as about a dozen tents were pitched outside the Madrid regional government headquarters, surrounded by thousands of protesters, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
By the early hours of Sunday, El Pais reported that the camp had grown to around 150 tents, with hundreds of people planning to spend the night. News agency EFE put the number of tents at around 100.
‘Live in fear’
Abascal was forced to leave the flat where she had lived for 70 years after a property firm acquired it and raised the rent by 275 percent to $3,000 (€2,650), according to the tenants’ union.
Her eviction has become a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis. In a video posted online hours before the march, she urged Spaniards to join the protest.
“I want what has happened to me to serve so that it does not happen to other people,” she said from hospital, where she has been treated for exhaustion since her eviction.
“I want it to encourage people to fight and to help change the laws that have allowed me to be evicted,” she added.
Enrique Ortega de Miguel, a 38-year-old graphic designer who lives with his mother, said Spain’s housing market was “impossible”.
“It is a struggle to find a place you can afford, then you live in fear of being forced out,” he told AFP at Saturday’s march.
Maricarmen Arnedo, a 76-year-old pensioner, said that while older people were being forced out of their homes, “young people can’t move out of their parents’ homes”.
“We want house prices and rents to come down, because I’m fed up with washing the underpants of my 53-year-old son,” she added.
Pressure to act
The government is expected to approve a package of measures dubbed the “Maricarmen decree” at its next cabinet meeting. The proposals would include the automatic renewal of rental contracts and further restrictions on evictions.
A similar bill was defeated earlier this year, but Abascal’s case has increased pressure on political parties to act.
The Bank of Spain estimates that the country, home to around 50 million people, is short of 700,000 homes based on the gap between demand and new construction.
Spain has little public housing, while increased demand, including from tourism and population growth linked to immigration, has pushed up rents, analysts say.
