Maricarmen Abascal, 87, had about 30 minutes to collect her belongings before she was removed from her Madrid home, where she had lived for seven decades. Social services accompanied her as she was taken away on a stretcher. Pedro Sánchez responded by saying the Government was working against the clock to bring an emergency housing decree to Tuesday's Council of Ministers meeting. Congress would then decide whether to validate it.
About 500 people spent the night in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, information from TodoAlicante and Democrata, using roughly 100 tents. Organisers have not announced a departure date, but say the camp is tied to specific demands, not an indefinite occupation.
The protest centres on the housing crisis and Maricarmen's removal from her long-term home. On 27 September, ABC News and DW reported that tens of thousands of people joined a wider march in Madrid. Demonstrators called for stronger tenant protection and a ban on evictions without alternative accommodation.
Sánchez spoke about Maricarmen at a PSOE rally in Getafe, attended by more than 2,000 people. He urged parliamentary groups to make a final effort to support the decree.
The proposed measure would strengthen protection for tenants facing eviction and regulate the rental market. The Government is talking with parliamentary groups to secure enough support. Junts has said it may back the measure if it does not criminalise small landlords.
That condition sets up the basic dispute. The Government wants to present the decree as tenant protection and a response to the housing emergency. Junts wants safeguards for small property owners before committing its support.
France 24 and CNA reported that the package is being called the Maricarmen decree. It could include automatic extensions of rental contracts and further limits on evictions. Until Congress validates it, the measure remains a proposed emergency decree, not a change in housing law.
At the Puerta del Sol camp, Alicia del Río of the Sindicato de Inquilinas said the protest was about dignified lives and the right of elderly people to remain safely in their homes. She tied Maricarmen's case to the organisers' demand that no one else face the same situation.
Reuters reported that protests followed the eviction in Madrid and other Spanish cities. ABC News and DW described the wider mobilisation as a response to rising housing costs and a shortage of affordable homes.
The Government has promised a timetable and a legislative route. Protesters want protection they can enforce. The immediate question is whether the text can win the votes it needs. Tuesday's decree must reach the Council of Ministers before Congress can vote on it. Until then, tenants have a promise, while people in Puerta del Sol are asking for legal protection.
