Madrid Eviction of 87-Year-Old Tenant Sparks Protests After €2,650 Rent Demand
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 19
Madrid Eviction of 87-Year-Old Tenant Sparks Protests After €2,650 Rent Demand
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 19
Summary
Police evicted 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal from her Madrid flat on 23 September after the investment firm owning it sought €2,650 a month, up from €500, ending her 71 years there.
Thousands marched that evening, then tens of thousands joined as a protest camp filled Puerta del Sol and demonstrations spread across Spain, turning her case into a national symbol of the housing crisis.
Six days later, Spain's government approved emergency measures extending rental contracts and protecting vulnerable tenants from eviction, but parliament repealed the so-called "Maricarmen decree" three days afterward.
The report frames the case as part of a wider pattern in which financial investors, aided by policy choices, push housing costs beyond ordinary incomes and weaken democratic control over housing.