Eviction of 87-Year-Old Woman Sparks Madrid Protests
Police removed the 87-year-old tenant after a court backed the landlord’s rent demand, and protesters said the case exposes Spain’s housing crisis.
- On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, police evicted 87-year-old María del Carmen 'Maricarmen' Abascal from her Retiro flat in Madrid after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of property owners. Officers removed her on a stretcher into an ambulance as hundreds protested outside.
- After Urbagestión purchased the building in 2018, the firm cited a legal loophole to raise rent from €500 to €2,650 monthly. Abascal's €1,350 pension proved insufficient, triggering an eight-year legal dispute.
- Hundreds of activists and neighbors organized by Madrid Tenants' Union camped outside to block the eviction. Riot police forcibly cleared the entrance, removing protesters with batons and pepper spray to create a path for court officials.
- Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez blamed regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso for protecting corporate landlords over vulnerable citizens. Protesters chanted, "Ayuso's penthouse for Maricarmen," referencing a €6.3 million luxury property scandal linked to the regional government.
- Spain's housing affordability crisis deepens as rental prices have surged over 100% in a decade. A divided parliament remains deadlocked over tenant protections, leaving the left-wing government unable to implement stronger safeguards against speculative investment.
241 Articles
241 Articles
In Madrid and other Spanish cities, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against the power of capital on the housing market. The...
Maricarmen Abascal turned the scene of an exhausted woman being taken away by ambulance into a symbol of the social, economic and political hardship in Spain.
María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, is a 87-year-old retired woman who was finally evicted from her home in the Retiro neighborhood of Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday (23), after the fourth attempt at eviction. Crime in the U.S.: Elderly is found dead inside a suitcase taken to the fire station 'I never felt a heat like that': Man reports the death of 33 cellmates in prison overcrowded in Nigeria Dozens of neighbors and tenant union activ…
Maricarmen, 87, said goodbye to her home: Madrilène, expelled on Wednesday, became the face of the housing crisis in Spain
When the rent became too high, Maricarmen Abascal (87) was unable to pay. Now she has been evicted from her home with the help of the police.
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