Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Madrid to protest Spain’s housing crisis after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from the apartment where she had lived for decades, UNN reports, citing Sky News.
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Maricarmen Abascal was given just 30 minutes to gather her most essential belongings before she was forcibly carried out of the building on a stretcher, accompanied by social services representatives.
Ms Abascal, who uses a wheelchair, was taken to hospital by ambulance, while supporters chanted: "Murderers!" and "Maricarmen, you are not alone!".
The apartment, located in the prestigious Retiro district of the capital, came under the ownership of an investment fund that intended to sharply increase the rent.
"I have lived here for 71 years and I do not want to leave," Ms Maricarmen told journalists on the eve of the eviction, which took place on Wednesday.
The eviction was accompanied by tense scenes in the street: police forcibly pushed back demonstrators who were blocking the entrance.
Witnesses saw law enforcement officers pushing and dragging protesters, lifting some of them by their arms and legs to clear the passage.
"I was unable to defend my home, but I fought so that others would learn to fight for theirs," Ms Abascal said in a video message released on Friday by the tenants’ union committee. The video was recorded in hospital after the eviction.
"Please, fight," she urged the demonstrators, who were demanding the introduction of tenant-protection measures, anti-fraud rules and a ban on evictions without the provision of alternative housing.
By Saturday evening, crowds carrying placards and lit flares were moving through the city; some pitched tents in the popular Puerta del Sol square, launching a sit-in protest.
Ms Abascal’s father rented the property in 1956, and after her parents’ deaths she continued to rent it under terms that limited the amount of rent, Spanish media reported. In 2018, the building changed hands; Ms Abascal was offered the opportunity to buy it, but she did not have the money to do so, according to the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which organised Saturday’s protest.
The investment fund Urbagestion, which later purchased the building, increased her rent from €500 to €2,650.
The fund later reduced the rent to €1,650, but the amount still exceeded Ms Abascal’s means, as she lives on a pension, the union said.
The courts blocked three previous attempts to evict her.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described her eviction as "a social tragedy that we cannot accept either as a country or, of course, from the standpoint of state institutions".
"This whole housing situation is heartbreaking," said protester Simon de la Riva, a 43-year-old teacher.
"It is unacceptable that so-called ‘vulture funds’ are buying up housing, that people cannot afford to live in their own homes, that entire families are being evicted, and that an elderly woman was evicted."
Ms Abascal has become a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis.
The outlet notes that the case highlights the mounting pressure on long-term tenants in Spain’s major cities, where rapidly rising rents, gentrification and a shortage of affordable housing have fuelled social and political tensions.
The left-wing coalition government is pressing for stronger tenant protections and expanded rent controls, but is struggling to secure support in a divided parliament, while Madrid’s conservative-led regional government favours a market-based approach.
Analysts estimate that urban population growth driven by tourism and immigration has intensified pressure on the limited housing market.