By Tuesday, the Government is expected to approve a housing decree with measures against evictions. That deadline has kept around 150 tents in Madrid's Puerta del Sol after a quiet first night. Hundreds of people say they will stay until the decree is approved. The camp has made the city's central square the focus of a protest that recalls the 15-M movement.
The measure has not yet been approved. Protesters plan to remain in Sol at least until Tuesday and are demanding what they describe as a real answer to the housing crisis. The protest was triggered by the eviction case of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, which has become a symbol of Spain's wider housing crisis and campaign against evictions.
The night passed without incidents. About 120 tents stood across the centre of the square. Some participants slept in the tents; others bedded down on yoga mats. Some used sleeping bags, while others slept on the ground. Small groups stayed awake during the cool night. Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional officers monitored the camp, and no altercations were reported.
The numbers from the square vary: initial reports put the central group at about 120 tents, while the camp later reached around 150. People gathered food and water on site. Police maintained a limited presence and observed the protest without intervening. The 26 September march drew tens of thousands of people, though estimates differed sharply: a government delegation put attendance at about 25,000, while organisers cited as many as 300,000. AFP reported that the overnight camp extended the pressure campaign into Puerta del Sol.
The programme goes beyond sleeping in the square. The first scheduled activity was a workshop on "direct action", where people in the camp discussed ways to organise the protest. At around 13.00, the platform for nursery schools is expected to arrive after a march from Atocha. Organisers also plan workshops to make banners. Children will have drawing activities, alongside book presentations.
Sindicato de Inquilinas, the tenants' union, is organising the camp. The group has called the Maricarmen case a point of no return. Its demands include urgent action against evictions and stronger protection for renters, along with measures to keep people from losing their homes.
Other activities will take the protest into the city. Organisers plan tours of blocks bought by vulture funds, where other people continue to resist eviction. The name Maricarmen has become part of the camp's language as participants link the wider housing dispute to individual cases.
Protesters often call the proposed package the "Maricarmen decree". Reports describe protections against evictions, with automatic extensions of rental agreements and extra safeguards for tenants also included. The campaign wants the package discussed at Tuesday's Council of Ministers meeting.
Puerta del Sol is also home to the headquarters of the Community of Madrid. The camp sits directly outside that institutional centre, keeping the housing dispute visible in one of the capital's best-known public spaces instead of confining it to a single march.
The comparison with 15-M is deliberate. That movement emerged in the same square 15 years ago in opposition to precarious living conditions. The current camp is smaller but uses the same setting, with participants linking housing costs and evictions to a demand for government action.
The legal picture is more complicated than the protest slogan suggests. A previous royal decree-law was published in Spain's Official State Gazette, the BOE, on 4 February 2026, and entered into force immediately. The current mobilisation seeks additional or tougher measures; it is not claiming that Spain has no housing regulation.
AFP and ABC News report that the basic political risk will come after any government approval: the measures still need to pass through Parliament, and the Sánchez government may not have a stable majority. That uncertainty helps explain why organisers have tied the camp to a specific political deadline rather than treating the march as a one-day demonstration.
For now, the protest has made it through its first night without incidents and remains in place. Campers have tied their presence to approval of the planned Tuesday decree. Until then, Sol will remain a camp and a public test of whether the proposed housing measures can answer the people gathered there.
