Maricarmen Abascal dies, the woman whose eviction changed the campaign
She was 87. She had been evicted on Sept. 23 from the Retiro home where she had lived since 1956 and was about to return. Her case prompted the housing decrees, their defeat in Congress and the early election.
María del Carmen Abascal died on Wednesday aged 87, according to El País, La Vanguardia and Europa Press. The family had not made the cause of death public by the close of this edition. According to El País, she died hours before signing a new eight-year rental contract that would have allowed her to recover her home. International outlets picked up the news.
Her story began as a neighborhood case. On Sept. 23, the company Urbagestión carried out, at the fourth attempt, the eviction from the home in Madrid’s Retiro district where she had lived since 1956 under a legacy rent contract (renta antigua). She had reduced mobility and a pension of €1,350. The eviction went ahead despite opposition from the Sindicato de Inquilinas (tenants’ union) and a UN request to suspend it. Images of the eviction set off protests across the country and a protest camp (acampada) in the Puerta del Sol that on Wednesday reached its twelfth day.
On Sept. 28, her lawyer announced an agreement with the owner so that she could return to the home. But her case had already left the neighborhood. The Government approved two housing decrees in response; Congress struck them down on Oct. 2 with the votes of the PP, Vox and Junts; and on Oct. 5 Pedro Sánchez called elections for Nov. 29. On Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the decrees again, which the press was already calling the “Maricarmen decrees.”
At the Sol camp, the news was received with sadness. “We are not going to stop, we are going to keep going,” the campers told Europa Press. Left-wing leaders lamented that she could not live her last years in her home. El Mundo reported that part of the left is turning her death into an electoral icon, with phrases such as “it is not a death, it is a murder.”
The texts approved on Tuesday, made known this Wednesday, go beyond her case. They require administrations to cover the unpaid rent of vulnerable tenants to prevent their eviction, according to El País and Europa Press. They crack down on speculative buying and include companies with more than ten flats, La Vanguardia reported. One of the decrees comes into force on Thursday; the one on rental extensions would do so on Nov. 15, according to ABC.
Four days ago a hoax announcing her death circulated on social media; fact-checkers debunked it at the time. This time the news is confirmed by several outlets. Her name will stay in the campaign: the general strike for housing now has a date, Nov. 11, and the Government has until Nov. 14 for the Permanent Deputation (Diputación Permanente) to validate the decrees.