Pensioner’s eviction fuels mass protest over Madrid’s housing crisis

Tens of thousands of people marched through Madrid on Saturday after the eviction of 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal, turning a long-running housing crisis into a mass protest centred on the city’s historic Puerta del Sol plaza.

Many demonstrators refused to leave after the march. They pitched tents and spent the night in the square, where more people, including multigenerational families, joined them on Sunday for a second day of demonstrations.

The protesters are demanding stronger protections for tenants, measures against housing fraud and a ban on evictions when no alternative accommodation is available. Alicia del Río, a spokeswoman for the Tenants’ Union, which led the protests, said from the plaza that the group “will remain here” until the government passes new laws, including indefinite rental contracts, and stops evictions such as Abascal’s.

Del Río said the protesters planned to remain in the square at least until the following Tuesday, when Spain’s Socialist-led government was due to hold a cabinet meeting and was expected to announce new measures.

Abascal’s eviction has become a symbol of the pressure facing renters in Spain. Protesters refer to her as “Maricarmen”. She was taken from her apartment on a stretcher and greeted by supporters as she was placed in an ambulance.

Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the apartment in 1956 and that she continued living there as a tenant under rent controls after her parents died. The building changed ownership in 2018. According to the Madrid Tenants’ Union, Abascal was offered the chance to buy the apartment but could not afford it.

The union said the unit was later bought by Urbagestión, an investment fund. Her monthly rent was raised from 500 euro (£430) to 2,650 euro (£2,280), before later being reduced to 1,650 euro (£1,420). The union said that amount was still unaffordable on Abascal’s pension.

“Maricarmen has been, in a way, the last straw that sparked this social unrest,” said Simón de la Riva, a 43-year-old teacher who took part in the protest.

The demonstrations come as rising housing costs and a shortage of homes are pricing many Spaniards out of the market, despite strong economic growth in Europe’s fourth-largest economy. Incomes have not kept pace with housing costs, while analysts cited tourism and immigration-driven population growth in cities as adding pressure to limited supply.

The Bank of Spain estimated that the country had a shortage of about 550,000 homes last year, with Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia accounting for a substantial share, according to the report.

Spain also ranks near the bottom among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for subsidised public rental housing. Such housing represents less than 2% of the country’s housing stock, compared with an average of 8% across the European Union.

The occupation of Puerta del Sol has evoked memories of the demonstrations that began there on 15 May 2011. Members of the “indignados” movement camped in the plaza for 28 days, prompting similar sit-ins across Spain and elsewhere in the world.

That earlier movement emerged after a global economic crisis and was associated with anger over evictions, unemployment, austerity measures and corruption. Estefania Molina, a political scientist and columnist, said the nature of housing insecurity had since become even more severe.

In 2011, she said, “people protested because they couldn’t buy an apartment”. Today, she said, “the protest is about not being able to rent a room in someone else’s home”.

The protesters’ stay in Puerta del Sol has placed the government’s expected housing measures at the centre of the mobilisation. Until those measures are announced, the demonstrators say they will continue pressing for changes intended to make renting more secure and prevent people such as Abascal from being displaced without an affordable alternative.