Spain protests: Evicted 87-year-old woman to return to Madrid home

Large protests have erupted in Spain over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman who is set to return to her Madrid home, her representatives said.

The lawyer representing Maria del Carmen Abascal, known across Spain as Maricarmen, said on Tuesday that the real estate firm offered to reduce her rent back to its pre-dispute rate.

Under the deal, her monthly payments would be capped at about $570 for the next eight years, taking up roughly 30 percent of her pension.

This is the latest development in an ongoing saga that started with her eviction last week.

Maricarmen became the face of Spain’s deepening housing crisis after an international investment fund bought her building and hiked her rent by more than 200 percent to roughly $1,880 a month, a move aimed at pushing out the long-term tenant to make way for lucrative tourist apartments.

Madrid’s tenants’ union organised protests and encampments in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square, drawing tens of thousands of demonstrators before spreading to dozens of other cities.

Upon the announcement of the landlord’s offer, the union celebrated what it described as a “historic win” in a post on X.

The government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez responded to the outcry by presenting a package of measures scheduled for a parliamentary vote this Friday.

The proposal most likely to secure approval extends expired tenant safeguards through 2030, shielding vulnerable residents like Abascal from eviction over that period.

The package falls short of the protesters’ demands and is likely to face opposition from conservative parties more sympathetic to landlords’ interests.

According to Spain’s central bank, the country is roughly 755,000 homes short of demand, a gap that could widen to a million units by 2028.