Demonstrators camping in a central Madrid square vowed Monday to keep up the pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez over Spain’s housing crisis, as the 87-year-old woman at the centre of the protest called on them to “hold on”.
The demonstrators set up around 100 tents in the capital’s busy Puerta del Sol square after tens of thousands took to the streets on Saturday to demand action to lower housing costs and protect tenants.
The movement was triggered by the police eviction on Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her lifelong Madrid apartment.
“I’m asking you all to be courageous, to fight, to defend what belongs to us,” said Abascal in a video posted on X by the Madrid Tenants’ Union.
Hospitalised since her eviction, she had become a symbol of the protest against Spain’s runaway housing prices.
The prime minister, sharply criticised even within his own camp for failing to contain prices since he came to power in 2018, is due to present a new bill on Tuesday.
He urged other political parties to back the bill, which is expected to contain measures such as the automatic renewal of rental contracts and further restrictions on evictions.
But Sanchez’s party lacks a majority in Spain’s parliament, so it is unclear whether the package will be approved. A similar bill was defeated earlier this year.
“We are demanding that this decree-law be enacted to protect the right to housing and prevent evictions,” said Carlota, a 29-year-old protester who spent the night among the tents set up in the tourist square.
“We are living through a serious situation in Spain right now,” said the woman, calling for “an end to putting capital and investment funds before people”.
Baffled tourists
Abascal was forced to leave the apartment where she had lived for 70 years after a real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275 percent to 2,650 euros ($3,000), according to the Tenants Union.
The images of Abascal being carried from her home on a stretcher after police broke down her door caused widespread outrage and put the housing crisis centre-stage as the country approaches elections next year.
Beatriz Blanco, 37 and self-employed, told AFP she had encountered a similar situation in her own circle: “I have a friend whose 65-year-old mother had to move back in with her because she could no longer pay her rent, which had just been increased.”
Baffled tourists
Abascal was forced to leave the apartment where she had lived for 70 years after a real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275 percent to 2,650 euros ($3,000), according to the Tenants Union.
The images of Abascal being carried from her home on a stretcher after police broke down her door caused widespread outrage and put the housing crisis centre-stage as the country approaches elections next year.
Beatriz Blanco, 37 and self-employed, told AFP she had encountered a similar situation in her own circle: “I have a friend whose 65-year-old mother had to move back in with her because she could no longer pay her rent, which had just been increased.”
