Madrid protesters demand tenant protections after elderly woman’s eviction

Thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Saturday to protest the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal and demand stronger protection for tenants. Demonstrators gathered at Puerta del Sol amid renewed attention on Spain’s housing crisis. The protest followed Abascal’s removal from her flat earlier in the week.

Images showed her being carried from the property on a stretcher after police broke down the door, turning the case into a national symbol of housing insecurity. Protesters carried banners calling for action against rising housing costs and tighter restrictions on evictions. One banner warned, “You could be the next Maricarmen.” Similar demonstrations have taken place elsewhere in Spain since the eviction.

Abascal urged people to join the campaign in a video message released online shortly before the march. Speaking from hospital, where she was being treated for exhaustion, she said she wanted her experience to help prevent other people from suffering the same fate and to encourage changes to the law. Spain’s main tenants’ union said Abascal had been required to leave the apartment where she had lived for 70 years after a real estate company acquired the property.

According to the union, the rent was increased by 275 per cent to €2,650 ($3,000). The case has increased pressure on Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who pledged last year to make housing a government priority. His administration is expected to consider a package known as the “Maricarmen decree” at its next cabinet meeting.

The proposed measures would include automatic renewal of rental contracts and additional restrictions on evictions. However, Sanchez’s government does not hold a parliamentary majority, and a similar bill was defeated earlier this year. The package’s approval therefore remains uncertain ahead of Spain’s general election, due in 2027.