Images of the eviction spread widely across Spain, fueling outrage and criticism of public authorities and real estate investment companies accused of pricing residents out of their homes, reports BritPanorama.
“Maricarmen has been, in a way, the last straw that sparked this social unrest,” said Simón de la Riva, 43, a teacher who took part in Saturday’s protests.
Speaking at a Socialist Party rally in Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed Abascal directly: “I have a message for you, Maricarmen: the government is working around the clock to bring a Royal Decree on housing next Tuesday. And I ask parliamentary groups to make one last effort to have it validated in the National Parliament for Maricarmen.”
Abascal has criticized Sánchez and blamed him for her ordeal.
“Does he not realize the quantity of evictions that there are daily?” she asked during an interview with Spain’s state broadcaster RTVE the day before she was forcibly removed from her home. “Does he not realize, or does he not want to realize?”
A home for seven decades
Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the apartment in 1956 and that she remained there as a tenant under rent controls after her parents died.
The building changed ownership in 2018, and Abascal was offered the opportunity to buy the apartment but could not afford it, according to the Madrid Tenants’ Union.
