‘Maricarmen,’ Whose Eviction Enraged Spaniards, Dies at 87
New York Times · LC · trust 31/100
María del Carmen Abascal, aged and ailing, became a symbol of the country’s housing crisis when she was evicted two weeks ago, prompting mass protests and triggering national elections.
Listen · 7:16 min Share full article María del Carmen Abascal packs a bag with her belongings in Madrid last month. Credit... Fernando Sanchez/Europa Press, via Getty Images By Carlos Barragán
“We regret to announce that Maricarmen passed away today,” her representatives said in a statement, using the shortened form of her given names, by which Ms. Abascal had become widely known across Spain. They did not give a cause of death.
Ms. Abascal was evicted on Sept. 23 from the Madrid apartment where she had lived for more than 70 years, after police broke down her door . She was carried out on a stretcher and admitted to a hospital suffering from exhaustion.
Days later, as her condition failed to improve, her lawyer reached an agreement with the company that owned the apartment that would have allowed her to return once she was discharged.
“This solution came too late,” said the statement, signed by the tenants’ union, her lawyer and her family. “An absolutely avoidable situation following an agonizing process.”
The eviction touched a nerve among Spaniards fed up with a housing crisis. Tens of thousands of people, many of them young, took to the streets for days across the country, protesting skyrocketing rents and evictions, and singing “we are all Maricarmen.” Hundreds have also camped in Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s most famous square, and have no plans to clear out.
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