Protesters outraged by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman camped overnight in the historic Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, where more people — including several generations of the same family — joined them on Sunday the 27th and Monday the 28th for another day of protests against the housing crisis in Spain.
Tens of thousands of people marched through Madrid on Saturday the 26th to protest the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal from an apartment in the upscale Retiro district, where she had lived for more than seven decades, and some continued on with camping on Sunday and Monday.
Also on Monday, Maricarmen’s lawyers said they reached an agreement with the company that owns the apartment she rented, so that she will be able to live there again.
The demonstrators demand stronger protections for tenants, measures to combat fraud, and the prohibition of evictions when no alternative housing is available. Many refused to leave after Saturday’s march and pitched tents in Puerta del Sol to spend the night.
“The housing situation is unsustainable,” said Natalia Navarro, a 27-year-old actress who was among those camping in the square. “We’re all on the streets because we’re fed up.”
“The wave of indignation and anger that has been unleashed now is unstoppable,” said Alicia del Río, spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which led the protests. “We will stay here” until the government enacts new laws, including indefinite-term rental contracts, and puts an end to evictions like Abascal’s, Del Río told journalists in the square on Sunday.
It is expected that the Spanish government, led by the Socialists, will announce new measures at its weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday the 29th.
Eviction ‘triggered this social unrest’
On September 23, Abascal was removed from her apartment on a stretcher and placed into an ambulance, while her supporters – who had tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the eviction – shouted her name.
“I could not defend my home, but I fought so that other people learn to fight for what is theirs,” Abascal said in a video recorded from her hospital bed after the eviction.
Images of the eviction spread widely across Spain, fueling outrage and criticism of public authorities and real estate investment companies accused of forcing residents to leave their homes because of high prices. Critics often refer to these firms as “vulture funds.”
“Maricarmen was, in a way, the drop that triggered this social unrest,” said Simón de la Riva, 43, a professor who participated in Saturday’s protests.
In a speech at a Socialist rally in Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed Abascal directly: “I have a message for you, Maricarmen: the government is working around the clock to present a housing Royal Decree next Tuesday. And I ask the parliamentary groups to make one last effort so that it is approved in the National Parliament because of Maricarmen.”
Abascal criticized Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and blamed him for her ordeal. “Does he not realize the number of evictions that occur daily?” she asked during an interview with the state broadcaster RTVE, one day before she was forcibly removed from her home. “Does he not realize, or does he not want to realize?”
A home for seven decades
Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the apartment in 1956 and that she remained there as a tenant, under rent-control, after her parents’ deaths.
The building changed ownership in 2018, and Abascal received an offer to buy the apartment, but she could not afford it, according to the Madrid Tenants’ Union.
Urbagestión, an investment fund that later bought the property, raised the monthly rent from 500 euros to 2,650 euros. Later, it reduced the rent to 1,650 euros, an amount that Abascal still could not afford with her pension, the union said.
Rising costs and growing housing scarcity
Rising costs and housing scarcity are pushing many Spaniards out of the market, despite the strong economic growth of Europe’s fourth-largest economy. Wages have not kept pace with rising housing costs, and analysts say that tourism and population growth driven by immigration in cities have put further pressure on the limited supply of housing.
The Bank of Spain estimated that the country had a housing shortage of about 550,000 homes last year, with Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia accounting for a substantial portion of that total.
The demonstrations in Madrid’s emblematic square this weekend reminded many in Spain of the historic protests that began on May 15, 2011, when members of the “Indignados” movement camped for 28 consecutive days, giving rise to similar protests across the country and around the world. That movement was a reaction to evictions and to other issues arising from a global economic crisis, including unemployment, austerity measures, and corruption.
Spain ranks among the lower ends of OECD countries in terms of publicly subsidized rental housing, which accounts for less than 2% of the country’s housing stock. The European Union average is 8%.
New decree
After two nights camping in central Madrid, the protesters against the housing crisis pledged this Monday to “continue pressuring” the government of Pedro Sánchez, from whom they demand a new law that protects people against the price surge. But the text has no guarantees of being approved in Parliament, where it does not hold a majority.
The protests followed Sánchez to Barcelona, and a group of protesters blocked part of Avenida Diagonal, where the Spanish premier attended the La Vanguardia newspaper awards ceremony.
With banners bearing the message “Maricarmen Decree Now” and slogans such as “Investors are the invaders,” the march participants described the difficulties in accessing housing.
In ten years, the average price per square meter for rent in Spain has doubled, reaching 15.1 euros/m² in August, according to the real estate portal Idealista. In purchase, the price is now 2,355 euros, an increase of more than 50% in the same period, according to official data.
