Tens of thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Saturday in protest at the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman who had lived in her apartment in the city's upscale Retiro quarter — near the Prado Museum and the so-called Golden Triangle of Art — for more than 70 years. Images of Abascal being carried out on a stretcher after police broke down her door on Wednesday, frail and in a wheelchair, have become a defining symbol of Spain's deepening housing crisis and sparked a wave of demonstrations across the country. Banners reading "Maricarmen, you are not alone" and "Ni una Maricarmen más" — not one more Maricarmen — filled the streets, alongside chants demanding stronger protections for tenants and limits on evictions.

Abascal was forced from her home after a real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275 percent, to €2,650 per month, according to Spain's main tenants' union. Her long-term lease had expired, leaving her without legal protection. From hospital, where she has been treated for exhaustion since the eviction, she posted a video message urging Spaniards to act. "I want what has happened to me to serve so that it does not happen to other people," she said. "I want it to encourage people to fight and to help change the laws that have allowed me to be evicted." Authorities put Saturday's turnout in Madrid at around 25,000; protest organisers claimed 300,000 participated. A group of demonstrators later returned to the central Puerta del Sol square to set up a camp, with dozens of tents erected as more people arrived.

The case has injected fresh urgency into Spain's fractious political debate over housing. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government is now expected to put a package of measures — informally dubbed the "Maricarmen decree" — to cabinet as early as Tuesday. The package is reported to include automatic renewal of rental contracts, stronger anti-eviction protections, and measures targeting speculative uses of housing such as short-term tourist rentals. Negotiations remain difficult, with left-wing coalition partner Sumar demanding rent freezes and limits on investment funds, while other parliamentary allies favour loosening planning rules to speed up construction. Sumar has warned it will block the cabinet meeting entirely if the government attempts to dilute or delay the measures, as it did once before over housing policy. The real estate firm that evicted Abascal has since offered to seek a solution, though no agreement has been reached and she remains without a home.

Spain's housing shortage is structural. The Bank of Spain estimated a deficit of around 550,000 homes last year, concentrated especially in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Social housing accounts for less than 2 percent of available supply — among the lowest rates in the OECD — compared with an EU average of 8 percent. Much of Spain's publicly funded housing stock was sold into private ownership in previous decades, shrinking the affordable rental market. Short-term tourist rental platforms and real estate investment funds are widely blamed for further reducing supply and pushing up prices. Spain passed its first-ever housing law in the previous parliamentary term, but critics say that regional governments controlled by the centre-right Partido Popular have refused to implement it in their territories.

The political stakes are high on all sides. With general elections on the horizon, no party wants to be seen as the obstacle to action after a case that has visibly moved public opinion. Even parties that had previously blocked anti-eviction measures appear to have shifted their tone. As one government minister put it, Abascal's case has produced "an absolute turn" in the national debate — and opened what he described as an unprecedented opportunity to pass measures that had seemed politically impossible just weeks before.