At 87, Maricarmen Abascal left the rented home where she had lived for more than 70 years on 23 September 2026. Reuters reported that the eviction went ahead despite protests outside the building. The Sindicato de Inquilinas is calling on the central government and Madrid authorities to act.
Organisers say Tuesday is the next test: the Government may decide whether to approve a new housing decree.
Under the slogan Ni una Maricarmen más, the demonstration began at 18:30 in Puerta del Sol, outside the headquarters of the Comunidad de Madrid.
Tercera Información reported that the eviction on 23 September was the fourth attempt, which the union considered final. Hundreds of people kept watch outside the home overnight, hoping to prevent it.
The march is due to continue towards Cibeles and the Ayuntamiento de Madrid. It will then pass along Carrera de San Jerónimo before reaching the Congreso de los Diputados. The route carries the organisers' political message to decision-makers at every level.
The demand is specific. The Sindicato de Inquilinas wants landlords to give a justified reason when they refuse to renew a tenancy. If they cannot, the proposed decree should require them to compensate the tenant, the group says. Organisers also want indefinite contracts and a freeze on rental prices, which they describe as a first step towards reversing the housing crisis.
The central government's delegation in Madrid put the turnout at about 10,000 people. El País and AFP reported that, information from the tenants' union, rent rose by 275% to €2,650 a month after the apartment was purchased.
An earlier housing report outlined possible effects beyond evictions, including on students and landlords.
Reuters and Euronews reported that Maricarmen was carried out on a stretcher. She was later taken away in an ambulance with social-services staff as protesters chanted in her support.
The case quickly reached beyond one tenancy, becoming a national symbol of Spain's housing crisis.
Alicia del Río, spokesperson for the Sindicato de Inquilinas, spoke at the start of the protest. She said the coalition Government would lose its stated progressive purpose if the decree failed to pass Tuesday. Del Río said the organisation had presented its text to all parliamentary forces and warned that anger over Maricarmen's case would not fade.
The union calls the eviction a point of no return and says it will not accept another case like it. Its criticism has two targets.
The union blames the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso for promoting what it calls a climate of speculation in Madrid. It also accuses the central government of inaction while using Maricarmen's case in its political dispute with the PP.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the situation a tragedy and condemned the eviction as unacceptable, AFP reported. El País reported that protesters were also directing their anger at Madrid's authorities, citing the regional government's purchase of an expensive penthouse.
Organisers did not know whether progressive political figures would attend. Del Río said the call was directed at society as a whole and suggested that public figures who support the right to housing could join the march.
The protest began with one tenancy. Organisers have made it a direct test of the Government's housing policy.
On 23 September, the announced "housing decree" had not yet been registered as a royal decree-law and was not under parliamentary consideration, Demócrata reported. The measure remained a possibility, not an approved policy, and its final content was still unsettled.
That distinction matters: the protections demanded by the Sindicato de Inquilinas will affect tenants only if they are included and adopted.
The political pressure is already concrete. The march ties Maricarmen's eviction to a Tuesday decision and assigns responsibility across three levels of government. The Government now faces a choice between its promised housing response and the demands raised in Madrid's streets.
