An 87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked protests in Spain is returning home, lawyer says
MADRID (AP) — The 87-year-old woman at the center of the most high-profile eviction case in Spain in recent years will return home, her lawyer said Tuesday.
María del Carmen Abascal has been hospitalized since she was carried out on a stretcher from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades on Wednesday. Her case has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in recent days and led the government to present measures to address the country’s housing crisis. It remains to be seen if they go far enough to appease protesters.
Abascal, who has become widely known as simply “Maricarmen,” accepted a deal with the company that owns her apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood to return home as soon as she is discharged, her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, told The Associated Press.
“She is very happy,” said Duro.
The agreement limits her rent to 30% of her income, meaning she would not pay more than the 500 euros ($570) per month she paid previously.
The coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists announced the new measures earlier Tuesday, after four days of intense protests centered around an encampment in Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s most iconic plaza.
The government's main decree extends protection against evictions for vulnerable Spaniards until 2030, regulates room rentals, imposes a new tax on seasonal rentals and bans “speculative real estate purchases by vulture funds” until 2028, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez told reporters at the presidential palace. It remains unclear how such funds are classified or how large the tax will be, as the decree's full text has yet to be released.
It also offers tax breaks to landlords who rent to low-income tenants, offers interest-free loans to families buying their first home, and protects public housing and promotes its construction, Rodríguez added.
“This has been thanks to the citizen movement. To Maricarmen. To the thousands of people in the streets,” Spain's Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz wrote on social media.
Rising costs and a housing shortage are pricing many Spaniards out of the housing market, despite strong economic growth in Europe’s fourth-largest economy. The protesters have been demanding stronger protections for tenants, measures to combat fraud and a ban on evictions when alternative housing is unavailable.
Parliament has 30 days to ratify the measures, and the government wants to expedite the process, calling for an extraordinary plenary session on housing for Friday. The government's coalition holds 152 of the chamber’s 350 seats, so it needs the support of smaller parties across the political spectrum to pass bills. Lack of parliamentary support in late July prevented the approval of similar measures.
The Madrid Tenants’ Union, the organizer of the protest, said it would remain cautious until it could review “the fine print” of the decree.
“The streets, this encampment and all the others currently across the country are engaging in a historic standoff with the government to push it to advance the right to housing through measures that had not been considered. And this continues,” said Alicia del Río, the union’s spokesperson.
The activists, who have called for more protests for the weekend across the country, will decide “in due time” whether to dismantle the encampment, a spokesperson told AP in a text message. The regional government, led by the conservative People’s Party, has asked the government delegate to clear the square within 48 hours before taking the matter to court. The protesters have remained peaceful.
“There are years when nothing happens, and weeks when history is made. This could be one of them,” the union said in a statement. “A historic window of opportunity has opened to reverse decades of the commodification of housing, and the coming days will be crucial. That is why we need to ramp up the pressure.”
Smaller encampments have sprung up in other cities, from Seville and Málaga in the south to Santiago de Compostela in the north and Palma de Mallorca in the tourist-friendly Balearic Islands, drawing international attention to a long-running issue.
Asked about the situation on Monday, Pope Leo XIV said it underscored the need for political leaders to find solutions to the housing crisis affecting many communities.
“Maybe we have to insist that political leaders, authorities find a solution to this, because it’s obviously increasing and oftentimes we only react in the moment of an emergency,” he said, after admitting that he was not familiar with the case. “But we have to try to see what the systemic cause of the problem is and how to help.”
Spain has had a housing law in place since 2023 that regulates rents and protects tenants, as well as allowing rent caps in high-demand areas at the request of local governments.
Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the property in 1956 and she continued as the tenant after her parents died, during which time there was a rent cap. The building changed ownership in 2018, and Abascal was offered the opportunity to buy the apartment but could not afford it, according to the union, which organized Saturday’s protest.
Urbagestión, an investment fund that later bought the unit, raised her monthly rent from 500 euros to 2,650 euros. It subsequently lowered the rent to 1,650 euros, which Abascal still could not afford on her pension, the union said.
The company didn't respond to emailed and phone requests for comment from AP.
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Associated Press journalists Nicole Winfield in Rome and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed.
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