Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose forced eviction from her Madrid apartment became a rallying point for Spain's housing movement, has died, a union said.
Abascal was removed on a stretcher in September from the apartment she had called home for more than seven decades. Images of the eviction spread across Spain, triggering demonstrations in cities nationwide over soaring housing costs and tenants' rights.
Her case came to embody a broader national reckoning. Spain has been gripped by a deepening housing affordability crisis, with rents climbing far faster than wages in Madrid, Barcelona and other major cities, and evictions of long-term tenants drawing sustained public anger.
The union's announcement closes a chapter that began with a single eviction notice and grew into one of the most visible symbols of the country's housing debate. Protests linked to her case had continued in the weeks since the eviction, and her death is likely to renew calls for stronger tenant protections.
