Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old Spanish woman whose eviction last month triggered mass housing protests and helped prompt an early election, has died, Madrid’s tenants’ union said on Wednesday. Thousands took to the streets following news of her death.
Abascal had been hospitalized with severe anxiety and exhaustion since September 23, when police and social workers removed her from the home where she had lived for more than 70 years, carrying her out on a stretcher.
Her eviction became a rallying point for anger over Spain’s deepening housing crisis, marked by a shortage of homes and sharply rising rents. Activists responded by setting up a camp in Madrid’s main central square.
After her death was announced, thousands marched from Puerta del Sol toward parliament, chanting, “This is not a death. It’s a murder!” Authorities did not disclose a cause of death.
“This was a completely avoidable death that symbolizes the drama that is the housing crisis in Spain,” said Dario Gomez, 36, who joined the march in Madrid.
Protests were also held in Barcelona.
Trade unions announced on Wednesday that they would hold a nationwide general strike over housing issues on November 11.
The demonstrations, combined with parliament’s rejection last week of measures designed to curb evictions and ease rent pressures, led Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call an early election for November 29.
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Sanchez is seeking to redirect the political debate away from his government’s handling of the migrant crisis in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta and corruption investigations involving his Socialist Party and family. He is instead hoping to harness mounting public frustration over soaring rents and the wider housing crisis.
“Now, following her passing, we are left with the example of the fight she waged and the legacy Maricarmen has left behind. And, above all, we will honor what she always asked of us: ‘Fight, keep fighting for what is yours,’” the tenants’ union said in a statement.
Sanchez expressed sorrow over Abascal’s death in a post on X. “A hug as well to all of us who feel this loss as our own today,” he wrote.
Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of Spain’s centre-right opposition People’s Party, said on X that Abascal’s death should not be turned into a political issue. “No campaigns, no political parties, no other interests here,” he wrote. “In the face of someone’s death, respect is all that matters.”
House bought by investment fund
Abascal was evicted after an investment fund purchased her home. Several days later, her lawyer said she had reached an eight-year agreement with the landlord that would have allowed her to return and continue paying the same rent as before.
She planned to sign the agreement after recovering, but never left the hospital. A neighbor, who lived near Madrid’s famed Retiro Park, said Abascal had been shaped by her experience of Spain’s authoritarian Franco regime, which ended in 1975.
“She was a fighter, with very clear ideas, a somewhat broad sense of justice, and, above all, perhaps a social conscience and ideas about solidarity,” the neighbor said.
Guillermo Ruiz, a 31-year-old audiovisual specialist who attended the march, said he was pessimistic about the prospects for change.
“The best homage we can pay to her is to continue the fight, continue to mobilise, fight for a dignified life and ensure that what happened to her doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
