MADRID — The 87-year-old woman at the center of the most high-profile eviction case in Spain in recent years will return home, her lawyer said Tuesday. María del Carmen Abascal has been hospitalized since she was carried out on a stretcher from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades on Wednesday. Her case has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in recent days and led the government to present measures to address the country's housing crisis.
It remains to be seen if they go far enough to appease protesters. Abascal, who has become widely known as simply "Maricarmen," accepted a deal with the company that owns her apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood to return home as soon as she is discharged, her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, told The . The agreement limits her rent to 30% of her income, meaning she would not pay more than the 500 euros ($570) per month she paid previously.
The coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialists announced the new measures earlier Tuesday, after four days of intense protests centered around an encampment in Puerta del Sol, Madrid's most iconic plaza. The government's main decree extends protection against evictions for vulnerable Spaniards until 2030, regulates room rentals, imposes a new tax on seasonal rentals and bans "speculative real estate purchases by vulture funds" until 2028, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez told reporters at the presidential palace. It remains unclear how such funds are classified or how large the tax will be, as the decree's full text has yet to be released.
It also offers tax breaks to landlords who rent to low-income tenants, offers interest-free loans to families buying their first home, and protects public housing and promotes its construction, Rodríguez added. "This has been thanks to the citizen movement. To the thousands of people in the streets," Spain's Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz wrote on social media.
Rising costs and a housing shortage are pricing many Spaniards out of the housing market, despite strong economic growth in Europe's fourth-largest economy. The protesters have been demanding stronger protections for tenants, measures to combat fraud and a ban on evictions when alternative housing is unavailable. Parliament has 30 days to ratify the measures, and the government wants to expedite the process, calling for an extraordinary plenary session on housing for Friday.
The government's coalition holds 152 of the chamber's 350 seats, so it needs the support of smaller parties across the political spectrum to pass bills. Lack of parliamentary support in late July prevented the approval of similar measures. The Madrid Tenants' Union, the organizer of the protest, said it would remain cautious until it could review "the fine print" of the decree.
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