The demonstration for Maricarmen Abascal begins: "I want the unjust laws that have allowed my eviction to be changed"

MadridThe eviction of Maricarmen Abascal has triggered a wave of indignation that was visible on Wednesday in the streets of Madrid, Barcelona, and several cities across the State, and has been repeated this Saturday in a demonstration in the center of the Spanish capital. Thousands of people have gathered at the Plaza del Sol, where the seat of the government of the Community of Madrid is located, to walk to the Congress of Deputies. It is there that the Spanish government wants to approve the new housing decree that serves to prevent evictions like that of Maricarmen Abascal. However, at this moment, the Ministry of Housing is still negotiating the regulation with its investiture partners and also with its own coalition partner, Sumar. In fact, the party founded by Yolanda Díaz has threatened to skip Tuesday's Council of Ministers meeting if this decree is not approved.

The pressure from the minority coalition partner, Sumar, coincides with the mobilizations that are being organized by civil society to protest against the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whom a vulture fund forced out of the apartment where she had lived all her life, and to demand measures to guarantee housing for everyone. This same Saturday in Madrid, at 18:30, there is a protest called at the Plaza del Sol that will end at the Congress of Deputies to express indignation with the administrations, which they consider guilty: "This is not about one Maricarmen. It is so that no one else is expelled from their home while some make a profit from a basic right," defend the organizers of the demonstration, led by the Madrid Tenants' Union.

In fact, this very Saturday, Maricarmen Abascal herself has demanded that the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, approve this decree on Tuesday to change "the unjust laws" that have allowed her eviction. Through a video released by the Madrid Tenants' Union, Maricarmen Abascal has requested this "first step" to end "this nonsense". "I want what happened to me to serve so that it doesn't happen to other people," she added. Yesterday, from the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, where she was taken on the day of the eviction, she also called for participation in this Saturday's demonstration: "I have not managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others learn to fight for theirs".

This Friday it transpired that the vulture fund Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL submitted a proposal to the Madrid City Council so that the woman could return to her apartment. However, the council rejected it because it "does not meet the legal requirements" and has called a meeting on Monday with the representatives of Maricarmen Abascal and the fund that owns the apartment to mediate.

Race against time negotiation

As thousands of people demonstrate through the streets of Madrid, the Spanish government continues to negotiate with its partners. And now it does so with Sumar's threat not to attend Tuesday's council of ministers if the housing decree is not approved. It would not be the first time, in any case, that Sumar stands up a council of ministers: it already did so in the month of March, delaying its start by more than two hours, due to discrepancies with the PSOE over the content of the anti-crisis decree following the war in Iran. The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, is working against the clock to manage to get them all into the equation, although she wants to ensure that what is approved passes the filter of the Congress of Deputies.

"This country needs a major agreement on housing matters that prevents any more Maricarmen from being evicted from her home and that protects the hundreds of thousands of people who cannot make ends meet because of housing," Sumar has stated in a press release. In their view, the solutions include "the protection of families against evictions and vulture funds, the regulation of speculative uses of housing such as tourist apartments and fraud in seasonal rentals or rentals by rooms, the recovery of Maricarmen's housing, and the automatic renewal of rental contracts." However, these demands must be reconciled with those that Junts has put on the table to ensure that if a new housing decree-law is approved on Tuesday, the measures are ratified in the Congress of Deputies.

As reported this Friday by ARA, the demands from Miriam Nogueras' party involve tax incentives for both tenants and landlords – such as a 15% tax deduction on personal income tax (IRPF) and tax exemptions for those who sell their property to the administration to increase public housing stock – and also placing limitations on vulture funds, such as preventing them from buying properties and preventing them from evicting vulnerable families from their properties. However, there is no consensus on the automatic renewal of leases, which Junts wants to be voluntary, and on generally preventing all evictions. Junts requests that in the case of "small landlords" – the fine print to define the term is being finalized – evictions may take place and that it should be the administration that provides the alternative housing solution. The Ministry of Housing guarantees that they are working on "structural" measures, different from those that have been rejected by Congress so far, in order to gather the necessary consensus from Podemos, EH Bildu, Sumar, and ERC to Junts and the PNV.