Maricarmen Abascal eviction death sparks housing protests and government crisis in Madrid

Housing and neighborhood groups organized a tribute for Maricarmen Abascal on Saturday, one month after her death, outside her former apartment at number 46 Alcalde Sainz de Baranda street in Madrid's Retiro district, where she had lived for more than 70 years since moving in at age 17.

The 87-year-old was removed on a stretcher from her home on September 23 after Urbagestion took over the property in 2018 and challenged her old-rent contract, which she could not afford on her approximately 1,400 euro monthly pension. Hundreds of neighbors and activists tried to block the eviction at the building entrance, but she was transferred to Gregorio Maranon Hospital.

“Few aspirations are as modest, and as widely shared, as the wish to die at home, surrounded by one's own people and by the objects and walls in which a whole life has been stored.”

Her removal triggered immediate protests, with thousands camping at Puerta del Sol square to demand urgent measures against evictions, real estate speculation, and rising rental prices. Her case became a leading symbol of Spain's struggle for the right to housing, and protesters raised the slogan Not one more Maricarmen.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government approved two decrees to halt evictions of vulnerable people, but Congress voted them down after opposition from right-wing, far-right, and Catalan pro-independence parties including Junts. Three days after the vote, Sanchez dissolved parliament and called a general election for November 29.

The government had previously survived despite a precarious parliamentary majority and a controversial amnesty for Catalan separatist leaders, but it collapsed at least partly over housing. Time reported that it is rare for a European government to fall over housing, noting that governments are more often toppled by corruption, budget disputes, debt, or war.

The tribute organizers said the event aimed to remember a woman whose story became one of the main symbols of the fight for housing rights in Spain. El Plural reported the tribute details based on a statement from the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid.