Maricarmen Abascal has passed away this Wednesday at the age of 87 in the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid. She had been admitted there since September 23, when she was taken out on a stretcher from the home in the Retiro neighborhood where she had lived since 1956. Her family, her lawyer, and the Tenants' Union have communicated the news and have lamented that the agreement reached to allow her to return came "too late".
Maricarmen wanted to return to that house. There she kept her memories and belongings after almost seven years of conflict with the owning company, Urbagestión. The eviction was executed on the fourth attempt, before hundreds of people who had spent the night in front of the building to try to prevent it. Since then, she remained hospitalized.
Five days after the eviction, her family, her lawyer, and the company reached an agreement, with the mediation of the Madrid City Council, to sign a new eight-year rental contract. The rent would not exceed 30% of her income. Maricarmen accepted the proposal from the hospital and hoped to be discharged to return. She had managed to regain the right to live in her house, but she never crossed the door again.
A struggle that filled the streets
Her eviction provoked a protest that left the Retiro neighborhood and reached the squares of other cities. In Madrid, thousands of people marched under the slogan "Not one more Maricarmen" and a camp was set up in the Puerta del Sol. The pressure for housing became central to the political debate in recent weeks.
The family, her lawyer, and the Union describe what she experienced as a "torturous" process and consider that the outcome was "absolutely avoidable". In the statement announcing her death, they recall the demonstrations, the encampments, and the political decisions that followed her eviction. "The cost to get here has been too high," they lament.
Maricarmen continued to encourage from the hospital those who demanded affordable housing and protection against evictions. The news that she could return home gave her a joy that her lawyer publicly conveyed. Her entourage now recalls the words with which she asked them to continue even when she was already admitted: "Fight, keep fighting for what is yours".
"We will continue fighting for you, for all, as you always wanted," conclude her family, her lawyer, and the Tenants' Union.
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