Eviction of 87-Year-Old Woman Sparks Madrid Protests
The eviction intensified Spain’s housing debate as protesters clashed with police and officials said the landlord rejected rent offers and delay requests.
- On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, police evicted 87-year-old María del Carmen 'Maricarmen' Abascal from her Retiro flat after Spain's Supreme Court ruled in favor of investment firm Urbagestión, marking the fourth attempt over eight years as hundreds chanted 'Maricarmen, you're not alone!' and she was removed on a stretcher.
- Abascal's father signed a regulated tenancy in 1956 that passed to her after her parents died, protecting rent at €500 monthly; when Urbagestión acquired the property in 2018, it invoked a legal technicality to raise rent to €1,650—nearly 250 percent higher than her €1,350 pension.
- Despite an anonymous donor offering to cover rent payments, Urbagestión rejected all proposals from Abascal's lawyer Beatriz Duro, who stated the company 'refused to grant any leeway.' Spain's Supreme Court ruled in March in favor of the firm, overturning a lower court's decision backing Abascal.
- Protesters chanted 'Ayuso's penthouse for Maricarmen,' linking the eviction to regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso's €6.3 million luxury penthouse scandal. Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez called it a 'sad and dramatic day' and blamed Ayuso's administration for protecting corporate landlords over vulnerable citizens.
- Madrid rentals have surged more than 100 percent over the past decade, with a 10 percent rise last year, reflecting Spain's broader housing crisis. Spain's divided parliament has blocked stronger tenant protections while the conservative-led regional government favors market-oriented approaches; the UN Committee's June call to suspend the eviction proved insufficient.
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196 Articles
Unable to pay a rent multiplied by five, the disabled pensioner was evicted on Wednesday 23 September from the apartment where she had lived for seventy and eleven years. Spain is indignant of this consequence of the deregulation of the housing market, due in particular to overtourism.
A 87-year-old woman has been stripped of her home in the heart of Madrid, where she lived for more than seven decades The post What about Maricarmen and the housing problem in Spain? appeared first on Rolling Stone in Spanish.
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The situation of the old woman is a stark illustration of the housing crisis in Spain, where short-term tourist rentals, such as Airbnb, and "vulture funds" are accused of blazing prices and reducing supply.
At the age of 87, Maricarmen had to leave the apartment where she had lived for 71 years. After several years of judicial battle and a 275% rent increase, the Madrilène was finally expelled, becoming
In Madrid, the judicial officers, protected by an imposing cord of riot-proof agents, carried out the eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman, with a disability recognized by 50%. The elderly woman was evicted from the residence of Calle Sainz de Baranda, in the Retiro district, where she lived for 71 years. Thus ended a judicial battle lasting more than seven years, carried out by the retired against the investment fund Urbangestion, which…
The case of an elderly man who was evicted from his home has put the spotlight on Spain's difficult housing situation.
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