Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old Spanish woman whose eviction in Madrid ignited mass protests over the right to housing, died on Wednesday at Hospital Gregorio Marañón after fifteen days in hospital. The news was announced by the Sindicato de Inquilinas, a Spanish tenants' rights organization, in a statement also signed by her lawyers and her family.
According to El Mostrador, citing the EFE news agency, the union lamented that "although a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return to her home, this solution has come too late". The organization described what happened as an avoidable situation following a torturous process.
Abascal was evicted on September 23 from the apartment in the Retiro neighborhood where she had lived for 71 years. She occupied the home under an old-rent contract from 1956, inherited from her father, as detailed by the newspaper El País, cited by La Tercera.
In 2018, the company Urbagestión bought the building for 240 thousand euros. On a pension of 1,400 euros, she never stopped paying the rent or the bills, which came to about 500 euros a month. In 2020 the owners demanded that she leave the apartment, because the contract had already been passed on twice, first to her mother and then to her.
Since then, the owners tried to evict her four times. They rejected proposals to pay the difference in rent and also to buy the apartment. BioBioChile reported that the rent rose by 275%, to 2,650 euros a month, almost 3 million Chilean pesos. La Tercera, however, mentions a demanded difference of 1,600 euros.
Her case strengthened the protests that culminated in an encampment in the Puerta del Sol, Madrid's central square, and led the government of President Pedro Sánchez to approve two protection decrees for cases like hers. The Congreso de los Diputados, where the opposition holds a relative majority, repealed both decrees.
Faced with that deadlock, Sánchez dissolved Parliament and called early elections. The union's statement also mentions the call for a general strike and says the cost of getting to this point has been too high.
The Spanish crisis resonates in Chile, where access to housing and rising rents are also straining the public agenda. The case shows how a single housing dispute can escalate to the point of reshaping a country's political calendar.
Spaniards will return to the polls on November 29, with housing as one of the central issues of the campaign.
