Spanish woman whose eviction sparked housing protests dies at 87 as crowds chant murder
Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old Spanish woman whose dramatic eviction last month sparked mass housing protests that led to an early election, has died, the Madrid tenants’ union said on Wednesday, as thousands demonstrated over her death.Abascal had been in hospital for severe anxiety and exhaustion since her eviction on September 23 from her home of more than 70 years, when police and social workers removed her by stretcher.Her case ignited protests over a mounting housing crisis including a shortage of homes and surging rents.Activists camped out in a major Madrid square.Following news of Abascal’s death on Wednesday, thousands marched from the square, Puerta del Sol, towards parliament, chanting: “This is not a death.
It’s a murder!” A cause of death was not announced.“This was a completely avoidable death that symbolizes the drama that is the housing crisis in Spain,” said 36-year-old marcher Dario Gomez in Madrid.Demonstrators also held protests in Barcelona.Trade unions on Wednesday announced a nationwide general strike over housing issues on November 11.The protests, along with parliament’s rejection last week of decrees aimed at curbing evictions and limiting rent pressures, prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call an early election for November 29.Sanchez is seeking to shift the political narrative from his government’s handling of a migrant crisis in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta and a series of corruption cases involving his Socialist Party and his family to the housing crisis, hoping to tap into growing resentment over rising rents.“Now, following her passing, we are left with the example of the fight she waged and the legacy Maricarmen has left behind.And, above all, we will honor what she always asked of us: ‘Fight, keep fighting for what is yours,'” the tenants’ union said in a statement.Sanchez lamented Abascal’s death in an X post.
“A hug as well to all of us who fe...