Thousands to march in Madrid in memory of pensioner — The Guardian

Thousands of people are expected to take part in a memorial march in Madrid, Spain, for 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal, known in the country as Maricarmen. The pensioner died in hospital on Wednesday evening, about two weeks after being evicted from the apartment where she had lived for 70 years. The Guardian reports.

Abascal’s apartment was bought by an investment company that sought to raise her rent by 230%. The woman avoided eviction three times with the support of activists, but the company eventually managed to evict her.

March and memorial

Madrid’s tenants’ union announced a memorial procession from the protest camp at Puerta del Sol square to the building where Abascal lived. After her death, people began leaving flowers, candles and notes outside the building.

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Visitors to the memorial called Maricarmen a symbol of the struggle for affordable housing. One activist who helped her resist previous eviction attempts expressed hope that her death would become a turning point in attitudes towards people being evicted from their homes.

Housing crisis and elections

Abascal’s story sparked protests in different parts of Spain and made the housing crisis one of the main issues in the early parliamentary elections scheduled for November 29. The Socialist government proposed emergency measures for fairer regulation of the rental market, but right-wing and far-right parties voted against them last week.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed condolences to Abascal’s family and friends. The leader of the conservative People’s Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, also expressed condolences, although representatives of his party, together with the far right, had previously blocked attempts to hold a minute of silence in the Madrid regional parliament and the Spanish Senate.