Overview
- The Union of Tenants of Madrid announced on Wednesday that 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal has died after being expelled from her Madrid flat on September 23 following a sharp rent rise by a property company.
- Abascal’s removal from the home she had lived in for decades provoked mass demonstrations, tent encampments at Puerta del Sol and tens of thousands marching across Spanish cities.
- Those protests forced Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call early legislative elections for November 29 after parliament rejected his initial emergency housing decrees.
- Major unions UGT and CCOO have responded to the case by calling a national general strike for November 11 to demand stronger rent controls, eviction limits and wage increases.
- The episode has focused attention on longer-term drivers of Spain’s housing crisis, including rising rents, investor purchases that reduce supply, scarce social housing and inflation that erodes household incomes.