María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, an 87-year-old pensioner who became a national symbol of the protest movement against Spain's housing crisis, has died, El Mundo reported, according to infohub.kz.
Her death came shortly after she was forcibly evicted on a stretcher in late September 2026 from her apartment in Madrid's upscale Retiro district. Maricarmen had lived in the building since 1956, when she was 17: her father originally rented the home, and after her parents' deaths the lease passed to her.
Foreign media report that in 2018 an investment company bought the building and later raised the rent to €2,500 a month. The sum was unaffordable for the pensioner, leading to years of litigation. Over the past 10 years alone, she faced 4 eviction attempts. On September 23, 2026, despite protests by activists, police forcibly removed her from the apartment on a stretcher, after which she was hospitalized.
Amid the fallout, a large demonstration took place in Madrid on September 26. Participants demanded effective measures to curb the housing crisis. Following the rally, hundreds of people set up an encampment in the capital's central square. It was later announced that Abascal could return to her home after an agreement was reached with the company that owns it.
But she did not live to return. In her final video address to activists from her hospital bed, the pensioner urged: "Fight!"
Similar actions were organized in other cities across the country after Madrid.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that mass protests and clashes with police had erupted across Spain over the severe housing crisis. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in more than 50 cities.