Union Says Spanish Pensioner Whose Eviction Sparked Nationwide Protests Has Died

A Spanish tenants' union has said that Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman forcibly evicted from her Madrid apartment last month, has died, according to the BBC.

Abascal had lived in the apartment for more than 70 years before she was removed on a stretcher during the eviction in September, an event that was widely shared and discussed in Spain and became a flashpoint in the national debate over housing costs and tenant protections.

The union did not immediately detail the cause of death, but tied it to the broader toll of the eviction process, which drew condemnation from housing rights campaigners and renewed calls for stronger legal protections for long-term and elderly tenants facing removal from rent-controlled or disputed properties.

Abascal's case prompted protests and sit-ins by housing activists in Madrid in the weeks following her eviction, with demonstrators citing her situation as representative of a wider affordability crisis affecting tenants across Spanish cities, where rents have risen sharply in recent years.

Spain's housing market has faced growing political scrutiny, with debates over rent regulation, eviction rules and support for vulnerable tenants expected to remain prominent in public discussion, including ahead of an anticipated early general election.

Tenant advocacy groups have said Abascal's death is likely to keep her case at the centre of the housing rights movement, with her name already having become shorthand in Spanish media for the human cost of eviction disputes.