MADRID, Spain – Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction in Madrid sparked a wave of protests over the housing crisis, died on Wednesday, the Tenants’ Union announced in a statement. She had been admitted to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital since 23 September, the day she was expelled from the flat in the Retiro district where she had lived for more than seven decades.
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“We regret to announce that Maricarmen passed away today,” the union said, lamenting that the historic agreement reached days after her eviction to allow her to return home had come too late. “An absolutely avoidable situation after a torturous process,” the organisation said. The Retiro resident was evicted on 23 September from number 46 Alcalde Sainz de Baranda street, with hundreds gathering from early morning to try to stop the eviction and the woman eventually evacuated on a stretcher by Samur medics and taken to hospital, where she remained admitted ever since. Maricarmen became one of the main symbols of the housing protests of recent weeks, with her eviction followed by mobilisations that culminated in an encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, an initiative that later spread to other cities.
All of this led the government to approve two housing decrees that were subsequently repealed by Congress, precipitating the snap election and the call for a general strike. “The events triggered by the injustice of her eviction undoubtedly mark a before and after in the history of this country,” the Tenants’ Union said, adding that the housing debate is now at the centre but the cost of getting here has been too high, and that after her passing they are left with the example of struggle and the legacy Maricarmen left, and above all will fulfil what she always asked of them: fight, keep fighting for what is yours.
Five days after the eviction, Maricarmen’s family, her lawyer, the Tenants’ Union and Urbagestión, the owner of the property, reached an agreement after negotiations mediated by Madrid City Council for the elderly woman to return to the property. The deal envisaged a new eight-year rental contract and rent not exceeding 30 per cent of her net income, around 500 euros a month, with Maricarmen herself accepting the proposal on 29 September from hospital and expected to return home once discharged. “Your family, your lawyer and your union will continue defending the right to housing and fighting speculators, with the strength and courage you taught us. We will keep fighting for you, for all women, as you always wanted,” the union’s statement concluded.
Maricarmen’s lawyer, Beatriz Duro, said the deterioration in the elderly woman’s health over the past year had been evident and warned that had the eviction been suspended as requested, they would not be in this situation today, comparing images from a year ago during the first eviction attempt with those of recent days. “She was out walking, singing, a totally autonomous person,” Duro said, in contrast to how she arrived at the second and third attempts, describing a person in a wheelchair with far less autonomy and being taken from her home on a stretcher.
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The news of her death brought a crowd of people to gather between Puerta del Sol and the Congress of Deputies, with the death causing great consternation at the encampment, where a minute’s silence was held after 8.30pm, broken by chants of Maricarmen is leaving but the fight continues. Numerous people arrived at the central square, from where a march towards Congress set off protected by police, with demonstrators showing their anger and grief with cries of where is the progressive government and proclaiming that the best tribute is to continue the fight. Some four kilometres away, at the door of Maricarmen’s house, several dozen people also gathered, creating an altar with messages, flowers and candles in her memory.
