Evicted 87-year-old Madrid resident may return home — Deutsche Welle

In Spain, 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, may return to the apartment in Madrid’s Retiro district from which she was evicted last week. Her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, said this, Deutsche Welle reports.

Agreement on return

Abascal had lived in this apartment since 1956. A video last week showed the wheelchair user being carried out of the building on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance.

According to Duro, the parties have reached an agreement that still needs to be signed. The lawyer called it the result of public mobilization and expressed hope that this way of resolving similar situations would help change the approach to housing issues in the country.

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Protests over housing crisis

Maricarmen’s eviction became a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis and sparked large-scale solidarity actions. On Saturday, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Madrid, while some participants set up tents in the historic Puerta del Sol square. On Sunday, new protesters joined them, including families spanning several generations.

Rising prices and a housing shortage are pushing people out of Spain’s real estate market. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez last week called Abascal’s eviction a social tragedy. He hopes to secure support for a housing bill at a meeting of the Council of Ministers. According to El Pais, the proposed document does not meet protesters’ demands for tougher action against unscrupulous landlords and a rent freeze until the housing crisis is resolved.