Thousands marched in Madrid on Thursday after Maricarmen Abascal, 87, died on Wednesday. Her September eviction became the focus of housing protests that led Pedro Sanchez to call a 29 November election.
Thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Thursday to mark the death of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction became the face of Spain's housing protests, Reuters reported. Abascal died on Wednesday. She had been in hospital for severe anxiety and exhaustion since police evicted her on 23 September. No cause of death has been announced.
As the sun set, thousands followed Tenants Union members in orange vests who walked arm in arm carrying a wreath from a protest camp in Puerta del Sol to Abascal's former home near Retiro Park, Reuters said. Leftist politicians in the Madrid region marked her death.
Protests over shortages and rising rents after the eviction prompted Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call a snap general election for 29 November after parliament rejected his housing proposals, Reuters reported.
The New York Times had earlier reported that Abascal, also called Maricarmen, had lived in the Madrid apartment for about 70 years and had urged people to fight for their homes from a hospital bed after the eviction. Thursday's march was a response to her death, not a new eviction.
Reuters did not publish an official crowd count. The confirmed sequence is the 23 September eviction, Wednesday's death, and Thursday's march to her former home.
People Sentiments Negative
- Reuters reported that leftist politicians in the Madrid region marked Abascal's death.
- Tenants Union members led the march carrying a wreath from Puerta del Sol to her former home.