Renters’ rebellion: An 87-year-old’s eviction ignited a movement in Madrid

Last week, Maricarmen Abascal became the symbol of Europe's housing crisis when she was evicted from her apartment on a stretcher. Her story sparked a mass protest and forced Spain's government to act.(CN) — Europe is in the midst of a renters’ rebellion.For the past four days, a mass protest has taken hold of a central square in Madrid where demonstrators are calling for an end to the kind of eviction that saw 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal forcefully removed from her apartment of 71 years last week. She was unable to pay a massive rent increase after her building was bought by a developer.Last Wednesday, police used tear gas to disperse protesters outside her apartment building and forced their way into her home. She was removed on a stretcher, drawing embarrassing headlines around the world.About 25,000 people are evicted each year in Spain, which is actually a decline from the worst years following the 2008 financial collapse when evictions soared past 60,000.Her eviction prompted protesters over the weekend to set up a sprawling encampment in Puerta del Sol, a central Madrid square. The encampment swelled to about 1,000 people and sparked similar demonstrations in other Spanish cities.Events in Madrid followed the victory of a left-wing political party in Berlin elections this month that promised to freeze rents and implement a 2021 referendum approving the expropriation of properties owned by large real estate companies.By Tuesday, the protest in Madrid had scored two big wins: The company that evicted Abascal offered to let her return to her apartment and Spain’s Socialist-led government passed a decree to protect renters.“This is the moment to intervene in the speculative housing market and start balancing the scales between citizens and vulture funds,” Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said on social media, using a critical term to describe investment firms that buy up residential buildings and then aggressively raise rents and push out long-term tenants.Garcia credited the protests for giving her government the impetus to pass its so-called “Maricarmen Decree.”“We achieved today what was unimaginable a month ago,” she said.However, the decree will need parliament’s approval. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, leader of Spain’s center-left Socialists, and his left-wing coalition partners rely on regional nationalist parties to pass legislation and this could prove to be an obstacle.The decree calls for a ban on evictions until 2030, tighter rules for short-term rentals and a two-year extension for existing leases.Exorbitant rent has become a top concern in Europe, especially in major cities where prices have skyrocketed in the past two decades.“Tell me about a city where we do not have a housing crisis,” said Barbara Steenbergen, the Brussels liaison for the International Union of Tenants. “I think it’s very hard to find one.”Between 2014 and 2023, EU data shows that rents in major European cities rose on average more than 45% and climbed as high as 125% for some one-bedroom apartments.In Abascal’s case, her rent jumped to about $1,900 a month from $500 after her apartment was purchased several years ago by Urbagestión, a development firm, according to her lawyer, Beatriz Duro. That sum was far more than she could afford on a monthly pension of about $1,500.Her father acquired the rental lease when the family moved there in the 1950s and the lease was passed to her in 2005, Duro told media.Urbagestión did not respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday. In a statement to Spanish media, the company said it evicted Abascal because her lease had expired and claimed it had never tried to raise her rent, according to media reports.On Tuesday, Abascal agreed to return to her apartment under a new agreement with Urbagestión after she was released from the hospital she was taken to following her eviction.Meanwhile, the protest in Puerta del Sol showed no sign of disbanding with demonstrators vowing to remain there until the new decree was passed by parliament and other demands were satisfied. Parliament was expected to debate the law Friday.Steenbergen said fixing the housing crisis across Europe was urgent and required numerous steps, not just rent freezes.“The problem is that even a rent freeze is useless for Spain because the rents are already sky high,” she said, speaking by telephone. “We have to talk about rent reductions.”Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads