Police in Madrid enforced a court-ordered eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the apartment where she had lived for more than seventy years. Officers removed her on a stretcher after she was given about thirty minutes to leave. Crowds gathered outside to protest as the eviction moved ahead. National outlets called the scene a flashpoint in Spain’s housing crisis and a symbol of stress in the rental market, where supply is tight and prices keep rising.
Reporting ties the case to a large rent increase after a new investment owner took control of the building. Advocates say the proposed rent was multiple times her old payment and far beyond her monthly pension. They describe a sharp jump from a few hundred euros to figures she could not meet. Those claims, shared by her lawyer and tenant groups, became central to the protests that surged in Madrid and across Spain over the following days.