Maricarmen, the symbol of the fight against evictions that triggered the snap election, has died

The woman who had become the symbol of the current protests over housing - which led to the general election being brought forward to 29 November - had been in hospital since she was evicted from her home. She was never able to go back to the flat where she had lived for almost 70 years, despite the agreement reached with the property’s owners, Urbagestión.

Maricarmen’s death has shocked the whole country. She was evicted from her home in the Retiro area of Madrid on 23 September. It was not the first time they had tried to evict her from the property.

Six years earlier, a company had bought her flat and tried to raise the rent she had been paying up until then. On a pension of 1,400 euros, she never failed to pay her rent – which was fixed at an old rate under a tenancy agreement – or her bills. This amounted to just over 500 euros a month, including her monthly electricity, water and gas bills.

The Sindicato de Inquilinas (Tenants’ Union), the organisation that helped raise awareness of Maricarmen’s situation and has organised demonstrations and sit-ins in various cities - the largest of which took place at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid - was responsible for breaking the news.

“Although a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to go back home, this solution has come too late,” stated the press release issued on Wednesday evening.

“The housing debate is at the heart of the matter, but the cost of getting to this point has been far too high,” they added.

The elderly woman’s ordeal began in 2020. At that time, the landlords told her she had to leave the flat because the tenancy agreement had already been transferred twice: first to her mother and then to her.

When she refused, attempts to evict her began. Four in total. The latest of these, just a few weeks ago, was the one that led to hundreds of people gathering outside her block of flats throughout the night to prevent National Police officers from carrying out the eviction.

Amid police charges, the officers eventually managed to remove Maricarmen from her home in a scene that has been seen around the world: lying on a stretcher and being taken to Gregorio Marañón Hospital, where, after fifteen days, she passed away.