Rent fight in Spain: Solidarity after the eviction of an 87-year-old

“Not one more Maricarmen” and “We are all Maricarmen” are chanted again and again by the approximately ten thousand rally participants in Madrid. It was the largest of several dozen protest events across Spain over the course of Saturday. According to the organizers, 300,000 people took part, according to the government, 25,000. People denounced the housing shortage and speculation in living space.

The trigger was the forced eviction of 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal, known to everyone as Maricarmen, last Wednesday. The police fought their way to the building. The woman, who was unable to walk, was carried on a stretcher out of the apartment where she had lived for 70 years. These images shocked and triggered a wave of outrage the likes of which Spain has not seen since the euro crisis cuts in the late 2010s.

“The Maricarmen case was the final spark for the conflagration,” says Gonzalo Álvares from the “sindicato de inquilinas,” the tenants’ union that called for protests. Their advanced age and severe disability made this the decisive case of 25,000 evictions every year in Spain, which was the last straw.

Maricarmen last paid 500 euros in rent. This was possible because she was covered by an old tenancy law from the 1950s because she had always lived in the apartment without interruption. Then the real estate company Urbagestión bought the building. Using legal maneuvers, the new owners increased the rent to 2,650 euros. With a pension of 1,350 euros a month, Maricarmen cannot pay that, not even the reduced 1,650 euros that the company later demanded. The pensioner sued, lost and was evicted.

After Saturday's rally, 150 protesters stayed overnight at Puerta del Sol and pitched their tents. Among them also Álvares. On Sunday they held discussions and working groups. Many people visited the camp, which triggers memories of the 15M, the indignant occupation of the place in May 2011.

The camp will remain for now. The tenants' union wants to use this to build pressure. On Tuesday, the government will discuss new legal measures to solve the housing crisis at a cabinet meeting. And it should also be about how cases like Maricarmen's can be prevented in the future.

“Apartments must no longer be financial products and goods,” demands Álvares. “Rents must be frozen,” he demands. The 27-year-old seller pays 990 euros per month for his one-room apartment in Madrid. His rental agreement is renewed every five years. There are no permanent rental contracts in Spain, as demanded by the tenants' union. The fear of having to leave the apartment because the rent will rise too much with the new contract is everyday life for tenants here.

Having an apartment in Spain is actually a civil right. “All Spaniards have the right to decent and adequate housing,” says the 1978 Constitution. According to this, “the public sector shall create the necessary conditions and adopt the appropriate regulations for the realization of this right.” Something that clearly doesn't correspond to reality.

The company Urbagestión bought the apartment where Maricarmen lived near Madrid's Retiro urban park in 2018 for 240,000 euros. According to media reports, it is now worth over 800,000 euros. It's an example of what's happening in the housing market. Entire buildings in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​but also Valencia, Málaga and Palma de Mallorca were bought up by funds in order to later put them back on the market at a high price or to rent them out as holiday apartments.

There were mainly young people at the rally. They and families with children have particularly big problems when it comes to finding an apartment. In many cities, rents and purchase prices have been rising inexorably and have long since reached levels that only very, very high earners can afford. In Madrid, for example, rents have risen by 70 percent in the last seven years and the purchase price by 60 percent. The wage increase averaged just 14 percent over the same period.

The left-wing coalition under the socialist Pedro Sánchez is facing a breaking point. The smaller of the two coalition partners, the left-wing alternative electoral alliance Sumar, finally wants to take decisive action against the reptile funds. There is even talk of expropriation - with the left's electoral success in Berlin in mind. As a first step, Sumar demands the expropriation of the apartment where Maricarmen lived in order to return it to her. The socialists don't want to know anything about it. They are looking for more moderate measures.

No matter what comes out on Tuesday, whether a new housing decree will pass parliament is more than uncertain. The government needs the votes of all parties except the right-wing Partido Popular (PP) and the right-wing extremist VOX in order to rally a majority behind it. There are at least two uncertain candidates.

The center-right party from Catalonia's independence camp - Junts - is economically liberal and has always supported the large apartment owners rather than the tenants. And the left-wing alternative Podemos has already announced that it does not want to make any compromises. "We won't swallow anything anymore. It's time for the reptile funds to swallow," says Podemos MEP in the EU Parliament Irene Montero. But that's not all the problems: housing policy is a regional matter. The central government sets the framework conditions. Whether these are then applied or not is a matter for the regional governments.

A law passed by the left-wing coalition in 2023 stipulates that districts and communities in which residents spend an average of more than 30 percent of their family income on rent should be declared areas with a “stressed housing situation” in order to cap rent. The capital region of Madrid, where the right-wing PP governs, does not apply the law.

“We will not intervene in the market,” explains regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso again and again. Because that would really unbalance the housing market. And this despite the fact that where regional governments actually intervene, such as in Catalonia or the Basque Country, rents in the “tense districts and villages” are falling significantly.