An 87-year-old Spanish woman, Maricarmen Abascal, whose eviction from her Madrid home last month triggered widespread housing protests, has died, according to the city’s tenants’ union.
Abascal had been receiving treatment in hospital since September 23, when police and social workers removed her from the home where she had lived for more than 70 years.
She was taken away on a stretcher after an investment fund that acquired the apartment sought a sharp increase in her rent.
Her eviction became a rallying point for housing activists, who had attempted to negotiate an alternative arrangement to prevent her removal.
Following news of her death on Wednesday, thousands of protesters marched from Puerta del Sol, one of Madrid’s main squares, towards parliament.
Some demonstrators chanted, “This is not a death. It’s a murder!”
No cause of death was immediately disclosed.
The protests have centred on Spain’s worsening housing crisis, including a shortage of homes, rising rents and growing concerns over evictions.
Activists have also staged a prolonged camp at Puerta del Sol to demand government action.
Spain’s trade unions announced on Wednesday that they would hold a nationwide general strike over housing issues on November 11.
The growing protests, combined with parliament’s rejection last week of measures aimed at restricting evictions and easing rent pressures, contributed to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to call an early election for November 29.
The tenants’ union described Abascal as an example of the struggle over housing rights, saying, “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 honour what she always asked of us, ‘Fight, keep fighting for what is yours,’”
Sanchez also expressed grief over her death on X, while Spain’s territorial policy minister, Angel Victor Torres, said Abascal had become a symbol of the difficulties facing families as both elderly and younger people struggle to secure or retain homes.
