An 87-year-old Spanish woman was forcibly evicted Wednesday from the Madrid apartment she had lived in for more than 70 years, in a case that highlights a growing housing crisis in the country. Video showed Maricarmen Abascal, who is a wheelchair user, being taken out of the building in the Spanish capital’s Retiro neighborhood on a stretcher and driven away in an ambulance. Hundreds of supporters had gathered outside the building overnight to protest her eviction, with dozens of police officers holding them back as some tried to stop the eviction from going ahead.
In a social media video posted Friday by the Madrid tenants union, Abascal gave thanks for the support she had received. Abascal’s lawyer, Beatriz Duro, described the force used in the eviction as “completely disproportionate and unnecessary” and decried the intransigence of the building’s owners. The case has brought new attention to an ongoing housing crisis in major cities across Spain, as gentrification has caused rents to skyrocket and the stock of affordable housing to shrink, leading to growing public anger.
Tenants unions and other housing groups on Thursday held protests and rallies in 16 cities, including Granada, Logroño and Zaragoza. The Madrid tenants union plans to hold another major protest in the capital Saturday evening. An investment fund acquired Abascal’s building in 2018 and sought a steep increase in her rent, and she had been fighting eviction for more than five years, according to the Madrid tenants union.
Duro said court officials and representatives of the fund, Urbagestión, had refused to suspend the eviction despite a pending court filing, humanitarian appeals and evidence that public authorities were working to secure alternative accommodation. Urbagestión did not respond to a request for comment. The fresh wave of anger comes after protests in recent years against overtourism in Barcelona, where activists say a surge in apartments being used for short-term vacation rentals has contributed to a shortage of affordable housing.
The European Union announced new rules earlier this month aimed at tackling the housing crunch caused by short-term rentals in tourism hot spots. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the eviction as “a social tragedy that we cannot accept either as a country or, of course, from the perspective of public institutions.” Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Sánchez accused Madrid’s conservative regional government of pursuing luxury penthouses while ignoring demand for social housing. Irene Hernández López, a 31-year-old test engineer living and renting in Chamberí, about 2 miles from Retiro, said what had happened to Abascal was “outrageous,” and she is worried similar evictions were already happening to other tenants around the city.
How can I pay 500 euros for this?’” she said. I don’t know how we’re supposed to keep going.” Dan Nicander, secretary-general for the International Union of Tenants, said the situation in Spain was something his organization had seen in many countries in Europe. It’s “really tough” for the people living in the houses to do anything about it, he added, saying the responsibility lay with politicians “to regulate the market in a way that it shouldn’t be that easy to buy and invest and then not [be] using the houses as homes.” “Housing is a right,” he said.
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