Lorraine Williamson
Just days after 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from the Madrid flat where she had lived for 71 years, there is now a possibility that she could return home. The property owner has proposed finding an affordable rental solution, while Maricarmen’s representatives and the owners are due to meet with Madrid municipal housing mediators on Monday. At the same time, her eviction has become a catalyst for protests and renewed pressure to change housing protections across Spain.
Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión, which owns the flat in Madrid’s Retiro district, submitted an urgent proposal on Friday aimed at allowing Maricarmen to return under a stable and affordable rental arrangement.
Its initial suggestion was to place the property within Madrid City Council’s ReViVa programme, which brings privately owned empty homes into the rental market. The council rejected that route as legally unworkable because the property does not meet the programme’s requirements.
The possibility of an agreement has not disappeared, however. The council has instead offered its municipal rental mediation service, and Maricarmen’s representatives and the owners are expected to meet at 4.00 pm on Monday, 28 September, with professionals from Madrid’s municipal housing company involved in the talks.
How did Maricarmen lose the home she had known for 71 years?
Maricarmen had lived in the property since 1956 under the old renta antigua rental system. The original tenancy was in her father’s name, subsequently passed to her mother and later to Maricarmen.
At the heart of the dispute is Spain’s 1994 Urban Leases Act, which placed limits on successive transfers of older protected tenancies. Maricarmen’s official disability rating is 50%, below the 65% threshold that would have provided an exception allowing her to remain under the old conditions.
Although she continued paying rent and previous owners accepted it, Urbagestión acquired the building in 2018 and later argued that the historic tenancy was no longer valid. The courts ultimately found in favour of the owner.
Efforts to prevent the eviction succeeded three times under social-protection measures. However, the protection was temporary and depended partly on the authorities finding suitable alternative accommodation. With no public flat available, Maricarmen was offered a place in a care home, which she rejected.
The fourth attempt went ahead on Wednesday. Hundreds of supporters gathered outside the property, while Maricarmen was eventually removed on a stretcher and taken to Madrid’s Gregorio Marañón hospital.
She remained in hospital undergoing medical tests on Friday, but was reported to be doing well.
Eviction sparks protests across Spain
The images of Maricarmen leaving the home where she had spent most of her life rapidly transformed an individual legal dispute into a national housing story.
Around 10,000 people joined an initial demonstration in Madrid, according to figures cited by RTVE, while tenant organisations subsequently organised protests across numerous Spanish cities. Demonstrations have highlighted other cases involving renters facing eviction, unaffordable increases or the loss of long-standing tenancy agreements.
Another major demonstration is planned in Madrid today, Saturday 26 September, under the slogan “Ni una Maricarmen más” – “Not one more Maricarmen”.
The march is due to leave Puerta del Sol at 6.30 pm and head towards Congress. Maricarmen herself has encouraged people to attend, saying in her first message after the eviction that although she had not managed to save her own home, she hoped her fight would encourage others to defend theirs.
Why Maricarmen’s case matters
The controversy has exposed a difficult question within Spain’s housing system: what should happen when a court determines that an elderly or vulnerable tenant no longer has a legal right to remain, but affordable alternative housing is not available?
Current protections can temporarily suspend an eviction involving a vulnerable tenant while social services seek appropriate accommodation. Maricarmen’s case demonstrates the limits of that protection when suitable housing cannot be found.
Spain’s Defensor del Pueblo has called for urgent measures to prevent vulnerable people losing their homes, arguing that the case exposes shortcomings that require attention.
For people renting in Spain, the debate extends beyond historic renta antigua agreements. Tenant organisations are calling for stronger protections when contracts expire, restrictions on certain forms of rental and measures aimed at preventing vulnerable households being evicted without an adequate alternative.
Government under pressure to act
Maricarmen’s eviction has also accelerated a political battle over a proposed national housing decree.
The Government has been working towards taking new measures to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, 29 September, including an anti-eviction moratorium for vulnerable people who cannot be provided with alternative accommodation. Parliamentary support remains crucial because any decree subsequently needs sufficient backing in Congress.
Sumar is pushing for considerably broader measures, including an intervention involving Maricarmen’s home itself, rent freezes, and extensions of existing rental contracts. The PSOE has pushed back against the proposed expropriation of the property, while negotiations continue over what can command enough parliamentary support.
Tenant organisations have meanwhile proposed their own package, dubbed the “Maricarmen decree”, seeking stronger anti-eviction measures and automatic renewal of rental contracts among other changes.
The political argument, therefore, reaches considerably further than the fate of one Madrid apartment. Maricarmen’s case has become a very public example of the collision between property rights, tenancy law, vulnerability, and Spain’s shortage of affordable housing.
Could Maricarmen actually go home?
For Maricarmen herself, the immediate question should become clearer on Monday.
There is no agreement yet for her to return, and the owner’s first proposal cannot proceed through the ReViVa scheme. But the planned mediation means the possibility of a negotiated affordable tenancy remains open.
Before then, today’s demonstration will provide another measure of how strongly her eviction has resonated beyond Madrid.
What happens next could unfold remarkably quickly: protest on Saturday, mediation over Maricarmen’s home on Monday, and potentially new national housing measures before the Council of Ministers on Tuesday.
Whether those developments ultimately allow Maricarmen to return to the home she lost — or produce lasting changes for other vulnerable renters in Spain — remains unresolved.