Madrid Encampment Grows After Eviction of 87-Year-Old Sparks Protests

Demonstrators stayed encamped in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square for a third straight day on Monday, following the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the Retiro flat she had called home for over seventy years, a case that has galvanized public frustration over Spain's housing crisis.⁵⁶¹

Eviction and rent dispute

Maricarmen's father first rented the Retiro flat in 1956, and she went on to live there for more than seventy years, according to multiple outlets; Euronews reported the tenancy at around 70 years. During the eviction she was carried from the apartment on a stretcher, and The Independent reported she was given only 30 minutes to gather essential belongings.³¹⁴⁶

Ownership of the building changed in 2018. NBC News and PBS reported that the fund Urbanestión raised her monthly rent from 500 to 2,650 euros, a figure the outlets themselves later treated as contested; Euronews and PBS separately reported that the rent was subsequently lowered to 1,650 euros. Maricarmen said she could not afford the apartment after the increase, and she was also offered the chance to buy it but could not afford that option either.¹⁴³

Maricarmen said, "I haven't managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others can learn to fight for what's theirs," and directed a pointed question at officials: "Does he not realize the quantity of evictions that there are daily? Maricarmen added, "Does he not realize, or does he not want to realize?"¹

Marches and the camp

According to NBC News and PBS, a massive crowd walked through the Spanish capital on Saturday from Puerta del Sol to the Congress of Deputies. Estimates of the crowd size varied: Euronews cited an authorities' figure of around 25,000 and a Madrid Tenants' Union estimate of more than 300,000, while The Independent put the number at approximately 30,000.¹⁴³⁶

Following the march, protesters camped overnight in Puerta del Sol. Euronews reported the encampment began with about 100 tents and had grown to roughly 150 by Sunday morning, with no incidents reported. Protesters chanted that "all this is for Maricarmen," and campaigner Gonzalo Álvarez said the aim was that "housing is treated as a basic necessity and not as a financial asset."³

Alicia del Río, spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants' Union, said, "We will remain here until the government passes new laws, including indefinite rental contracts, and stops evictions like Abascal's," and described the case as "a point of no return in Spain's housing struggle." Simón de la Riva said Maricarmen "has been, in a way, the last straw that sparked this social unrest," and organisers drew comparisons to the 2011 indignados occupation of the same square, which NBC and PBS said lasted 28 days, while The Independent described it as a month-long occupation.¹⁴³⁶

Political response

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the government was working to bring a Royal Decree on housing the following Tuesday, and he addressed Maricarmen's case at a Socialist Party rally. The Straits Times reported that Spain's left-leaning national government criticized the conservative Madrid regional government headed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso in connection with the case.¹⁴⁵

Podemos figure Pablo Iglesias said "Maricarmen could become Spain's Rosa Parks" and voiced hope that the demonstrations would spread across the country, while Ione Belarra said "no single measure would solve the housing crisis without continued protests." Irene Montero opposed any government talks with Junts over the decree, and Euronews reported that Podemos demanded the seizure of 650,000 properties held by so-called vulture funds, suggesting the government's left-wing allies might withdraw their backing if the decree failed to pass on Tuesday.³

A wider shortage

NBC, PBS and Euronews reported that the Bank of Spain had put the country's housing deficit at roughly 550,000 units in the prior year. Subsidised rental units make up under 2% of Spain's total housing supply—well below the EU's 8% average—placing the country near the bottom among OECD nations for public rental housing. According to The Straits Times and The Independent, average rents have roughly doubled during the last ten years.³¹⁴⁵

Accounts differ on the scale of the shortfall: The Straits Times reported a deficit of 750,000 homes and about 120,000 homes built annually, a figure it said was a sixth of pre-2008 construction levels, claims disputed elsewhere; The Independent separately reported that home construction stands at a sixth of pre-crisis levels without citing the same totals.⁵⁶

Research from CaixaBank found home sales in 2025 reached 714,200, the highest since 2007, up 11.5% year on year, while only 83,500 homes were completed in the twelve months to September, against net household creation of 226,000. House prices rose 12.9% annually in the fourth quarter of 2025, and CaixaBank said the gap between permits and completed homes "has widened significantly and has now reached its highest levels since 2010," adding that "the shortage of the supply of new housing remains the single factor that is distorting the Spanish residential market the most."²

CaixaBank said completed homes were unlikely to exceed 100,000 units in 2026 and warned that "the deterioration of housing affordability, especially in the major cities, could limit the realisation of some of the demand," citing labour shortages, supply delays and regulatory burden, alongside risks from geopolitical conflict, rising energy costs and possible ECB interest rate increases.²