(Adnkronos) – The protest against the housing crisis and high housing costs continues in one of Madrid’s main squares, sparked after police evicted 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the capital apartment where she had lived her whole life. About a hundred tents have been set up in Puerta del Sol, at the end of the demonstration last Saturday where tens of thousands of people asked Pedro Sanchez’s government for action to lower housing costs and greater protections for tenants.
“I ask you to be brave, to fight, to defend what belongs to us,” is the exhortation that Maricarmen, who was hospitalized after the eviction, addressed to the demonstrators in a video posted on X by the Madrid tenants’ union leading the protest. In response to the protests, Sanchez announced that tomorrow he will present to the council of ministers a package of measures to address the crisis, including protection against evictions, a ban on speculative real estate purchases by funds, “stabilization” of rental contracts, and aid for people without savings to buy a home. The socialist prime minister has asked all parties to support the package in parliament, given that in recent months the government did not have the votes in parliament to approve a similar measure.
“We demand that this decree be applied to protect the right to housing and prevent evictions,” declared one of the participants in the protests at Puerta del Sol, emphasizing that “we are experiencing a very difficult situation in Spain” and asking that “investment funds stop being prioritized over people.” Maricarmen was evicted from the home where she had lived for 70 years after an investment fund bought the building, increasing her rent by 275%, reaching 2,650 euros.
