🏠 Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old Spanish citizen, lived in her Madrid apartment for about 71 years. In 1956 her parents moved in there, and after their death the leasehold right passed to her. The building's new owner, the company Urbagestión, secured the termination of the contract: instead of the previous rent, the woman was assigned an unaffordable fivefold price, far exceeding her pension. Several times public activists thwarted police attempts to evict Abascal from the apartment; however, on September 23 Maricarmen was finally deprived of her home. That day the woman was carried out of the apartment on a stretcher and taken to hospital. As compensation, the city hall offered her a temporary place in municipal housing.
«I lived here for 71 years. My father and mother died here, and I thought I would stay here until the end. I could not defend my home, but I fought so that others would learn to fight for theirs»,— Abascal commented. However, her story is far from an isolated case. In the first three months of 2026 alone, 4,005 people were forcibly evicted in Spain — an average of about 44 cases a day. In 2025 there were 24,540 such evictions, and almost three quarters were linked to non-payment of rent.
❗️ Maricarmen's story became the embodiment of the housing crisis in Spain; after what happened, hundreds of people took to the streets in protest. According to Abascal, the legal battle over her home lasted seven years:
«They are inhuman. You cannot force a person to live for seven years with an axe at their neck… Everything for money».In the end Urbagestión relented and returned Maricarmen's home — but only after the story gained wide public resonance and began to threaten the company's reputation. The sinister thing is the very fact that an elderly person can simply be deprived of their home, with no regard for either health or age. Such is the price of human life set by the Spanish capitalists.
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