87-Year-Old Evicted After 70 Years in Madrid Home Dies, Fueling Housing Crisis Protests

An 87-year-old woman who was evicted from the Madrid apartment she had lived in for seventy years died on Wednesday, intensifying a political crisis over housing costs that has already forced Spain into an early national election.

María del Carmen Abascal, known as “Maricarmen,” was hospitalized after being removed from her apartment on Sept. 23. Images of the eviction, in which she was carried out on a stretcher while using a wheelchair, spread across the country and turned her into a symbol of Spain’s housing affordability crisis. Police had cordoned off the street and cleared away demonstrators who tried to stop the eviction.

The real estate company behind the eviction had reportedly wanted to rent the apartment out at a much higher price, according to The Associated Press. Her cause of death has not been disclosed.

Her death came only days after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for Nov. 29, after his government failed to push emergency housing measures through Parliament. The episode has added pressure on Sánchez’s Socialist Party as frustration mounts nationwide over rising rents.

Facing public backlash after the eviction, the company agreed to let Abascal move back into her home. She died before that could happen.

Protests and tributes

News of her death drew demonstrators to Spain’s Parliament and to Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square, where some held a minute of silence. Protesters chanted, “Maricarmen lives, the fight goes on!”

Sánchez offered condolences in a post on X: “All my love to Maricarmen’s family and loved ones. A hug as well to all of us who feel this loss as our own today. Rest in peace.”

Conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo also offered condolences and called for restraint. “No campaign, no party, no use for political advantage,” he wrote. “When faced with the death of a person, we must only show respect.”

Abascal’s eviction and death have become a rallying point for housing activists pushing for changes to Spain’s rental rules ahead of the November vote.