An elderly woman whose eviction sparked nationwide protests over Spain’s housing crisis and a political row that triggered early elections has died, according to Madrid’s tenants union.<\/p>\n
Maricarmen Abascal, 87, was forcibly removed on a stretcher from her apartment of more than 70 years on 23 September after she was unable to afford rent increases. <\/p>\n
The company that owned the flat later offered to allow her to return at a lower rent rate – but she wasn’t able to sign an agreement as she had been admitted to hospital.<\/p>\n
“We regret to announce that Maricarmen passed away today,” the Madrid Tenants’ Union said in a statement, adding that her situation marked “a turning point in the history of this country”.<\/p>\n
Abascal became a symbol for Spain’s housing crisis following her eviction.<\/p>\n
A legal glitch allowed her landlord to raise her rent from \u20ac500 (\u00a3428; $572) to \u20ac2,650. It was later lowered to \u20ac1,650 – still \u20ac300 more than her monthly pension.<\/p>\n
Anger grew over the situation, leading to protests.<\/p>\n
This put pressure on the coalition government to approve emergency housing legislation – but it was later rejected in Congress.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in cities across the country over the weekend following the rejection of the proposed measures.<\/p>\n
Referring to the rejected bills, the Madrid Tenants’ Union said: “While a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return to her home, this solution has come too late. An absolutely avoidable situation after a torturing process.”<\/p>\n
It said the events surrounding her eviction represented a turning point in the country’s history, but added that the cost to get to this point had been “too high”.<\/p>\n
It added: “Above all, we will fulfil what she always asked of us: ‘fight, keep fighting for what is yours.'”<\/p>\n
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said: “All my love goes to Maricarmen’s family and loved ones.<\/p>\n
“A hug as well to everyone who today feels this loss as their own.”<\/p>\n
Following the announcement of Abascal’s death, protesters gathered at one of Madrid’s main squares, Puerta del Sol, which has become a protest encampment for many days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly woman whose eviction sparked nationwide protests over Spain’s housing crisis and a political row that triggered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-795154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}