PP and BNG were absent from the ceremony outside Vigo city hall, where the Concello de Vigo held a minute of silence for Maricarmen, the 87-year-old woman who died after being evicted from her Madrid home on 23 September.
Socialist councillors attended alongside the Zona Franca delegate. The mayor of Gondomar joined the tribute as well.
The memorial quickly turned into a dispute over political responsibility and housing policy. Local officials organised the event as the controversy around Maricarmen moved from Madrid into Vigo’s debate over rent protection. RTVE and El País reported that she had lived for more than 70 years in a flat on Alcalde Sainz de Baranda in Madrid’s Retiro district. The 23 September eviction was the fourth attempt to remove her, despite her disability and limited mobility. The rent reportedly rose from about €500 to €2,650 a month after the change of ownership and the end of her previous contract. Independent reports identified the property as belonging to investment company Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL.
BNG spokesperson Xabier Pérez Rodríguez said he and his colleagues were on an institutional visit to the Conxemar frozen-food fair. He criticised the council’s notification process, saying the groups should have been contacted earlier by telephone, not only by email.
The disagreement over the ceremony was brief. The housing dispute was not. After the eviction, Maricarmen was taken to Gregorio Marañón Hospital, where she spent about two weeks before dying on 7 October, the Sindicato de Inquilinas de Madrid reported. Her death turned the case into a national symbol of rising rents and the protections available to elderly tenants with disabilities. On 28 September, representatives of Maricarmen and the property company reached an agreement intended to let her return to the flat. The compromise came only after the eviction and her hospitalisation, and did not prevent her condition from subsequently deteriorating. The case also prompted a large protest in Madrid on 26 September and became part of a wider national campaign for affordable housing.
Alianza pola Vivenda de Vigo called and organised a demonstration through the city centre a week earlier. On the day of the tribute, the group renewed its demand to Mayor Abel Caballero: it wants Vigo to apply rent controls by declaring zonas tensionadas.
Caballero does not support that approach at present. The mayor favours other complementary measures, leaving the housing alliance without the response it wants.
The case had already been covered in an earlier report, but the Vigo ceremony gave it a distinct local dimension. A Madrid eviction now sits within a municipal argument over whether controlling rental prices should take priority over other measures. The dispute goes beyond the legality of one eviction. It also concerns what happens when a long-standing tenancy ends and the proposed rent rises sharply.
The venue gave the argument a visible political setting. Socialist representatives stood before the basic facade of the Concello de Vigo alongside the Zona Franca delegate. The mayor of Gondomar was there too. BNG cited a prior institutional commitment and challenged the notification process; PP representatives did not attend.
Alianza pola Vivenda used the tribute to press for a specific policy, while Abel Caballero rejected the proposal. Reports on Maricarmen’s case have linked the Vigo demand to a national campaign for affordable housing. Caballero favours other complementary measures.
