The PP rejected official tributes for Maricarmen in Madrid. Opposition groups gathered outside the Assembly and City Hall, while Reyes Maroto held her own minute of silence inside the plenary.
At 9.45am, Más Madrid and PSOE held a minute of silence in the exterior atrium of the Assembly of Madrid. The gathering came after the Partido Popular refused to include a tribute to Maricarmen in the institution's plenary session.
The same dispute reached Madrid City Hall. Most Más Madrid and PSOE councillors gathered near the Cibeles entrance at around 9am, before the municipal plenary began. The PP kept the tribute outside both official chambers.
Maricarmen, 87, died on 7 October 2026 at Gregorio Marañón Hospital after spending approximately 14–15 days there. She had been evicted on 23 September from the Retiro home where she had lived for around 70–71 years.
The PP said it regretted Maricarmen's death but did not want to take part in what it called her political use for an interested campaign. SER reported that the party saw the proposed tribute as an attempt at political instrumentalisation. That position kept the planned minute of silence out of both institutions governed by the party.
Inside City Hall, Reyes Maroto created her own moment of remembrance.
The socialist spokesperson used one minute of her speech to remain silent in Maricarmen's memory. She also proposed that Madrid organise a tribute. Maroto said the PP had fallen short of the standard expected by the city and its residents, even after Maricarmen's death. Her intervention brought the missing official minute into the plenary debate.
The dispute had already appeared in the regional parliament: according to EL PAÍS, the PP rejected a minute of silence in the Asamblea de Madrid on 7 October, before the same position was repeated at City Hall the following day. Más Madrid and PSOE held their own commemorations outside both institutions, while the PP and Vox did not join the municipal tribute.
Maroto had also sent condolences to Maricarmen's family and support for the campaign linked to her home. She recalled that Maricarmen wanted only to remain in the house where she had lived for 70 years. Maroto said it was painful that she died without returning there.
She also backed those camping at Puerta del Sol and said the cause remained alive among people demanding dignified housing.
The eviction helped drive protests over access to affordable and dignified housing. EFE and other reports described a camp at Puerta del Sol organised around the wider housing campaign. The Sindicato de Inquilinas linked Maricarmen's case to the demand for the right to live in adequate housing.
Available independent reporting does not provide a verified official statistic that directly links her death to a particular eviction figure or housing measure. No such figure can be added on the current evidence.
After news of her death, protesters walked towards the Congress of Deputies. They also held a minute of silence at Kilometre Zero in Puerta del Sol, taking the commemoration beyond the dispute between Madrid's governing party and the opposition.
The political reaction began online before the institutional meetings. Pedro Sánchez wrote that he felt the loss as his own. Mónica García of Más Madrid said Maricarmen's struggle had awakened consciences across Spain and that her dignity and courage showed the way.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso and José Luis Martínez Almeida did not publish messages of condolence that night, according to the source material.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo did send a message to Maricarmen's family. He rejected campaign activity and interested political use while calling for no further obstacles. His response matched the PP's stated argument against an official minute, but it did not lead to one inside the institutions controlled by the party.
The dispute then turned into a public political exchange. José Luis Martínez-Almeida accused the left-wing opposition of using Maricarmen's story in a sectarian and partisan way. The opposition criticised the PP for refusing institutional recognition of her death.
The opposition held its silence outside the buildings, while the governing party kept the tribute out of the plenary rooms. Reyes Maroto's intervention ensured that Maricarmen was remembered inside City Hall. The PP continued to defend its decision as a rejection of political use, while its opponents called it a failure of basic civic recognition.
