Madrid mourns evicted pensioner who sparked housing protests

Mourners gathered in Madrid on Thursday after 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, whose eviction helped drive Spain's housing protests, died in hospital two weeks after being removed from the apartment where she had lived for 70 years.

Candles, flowers and messages were left at an improvised shrine in Puerta del Sol, the central square where housing protesters have been camping. One message called Abascal “the grandmother of an entire country”.

Abascal, who used a wheelchair, was taken away on a stretcher after the real estate company that owned the flat drastically raised the rent. A deal had later been reached allowing her to return home at a lower rent, but she spent her final days in hospital.

“She didn't have to die this way. Maricarmen wanted to die in her house,” said Valeria Racu, a spokeswoman for the Madrid Tenants' Union, which supported Abascal in her years-long legal battle against the company.

Protesters in Puerta del Sol wept and embraced on Wednesday night after learning of her death. Hundreds marched toward parliament, and some called the death a “murder”.

The protests have put housing at the centre of Spain's snap general election, scheduled for November 29. The left-wing government had agreed two decrees that included greater protections against evictions for vulnerable tenants and automatic renewal of contracts, but the minority coalition failed to pass the measures in parliament, prompting Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call the early vote on Monday.

Another march was scheduled for Thursday evening from Puerta del Sol to Abascal's former home in the Retiro neighbourhood. Tenants' unions called for a national minute's silence at noon on Friday.