Sánchez points to Ayuso for the eviction of Maricarmen in Madrid: "It is a social tragedy"

Madrid / BarcelonaThe eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old resident of Madrid who uses a wheelchair, was carried out this Wednesday in the fourth attempt to force her out of her home. Although hundreds of neighbors and members of the Tenants' Union of the Spanish capital had gathered and installed themselves outside the building since Tuesday afternoon, the riot police of the National Police executed the eviction order, which led to moments of great tension: the Union reported the use of "violence" by the police, with blows to the heads of protesters, as well as the use of pepper spray. The property owner, the investment fund Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión S.L., proposed a rent increase to 1,650 euros, which Maricarmen could not afford: she has a pension of 1,350 euros and until now was paying 500 euros in rent, because she had an old rent contract. Despite attempts at negotiation, the fund refused to budge. Now the resident does not know where she will go and, for the moment, the Madrid City Council has assured that it has an "emergency spot" in a nursing home. "It is a social tragedy," stated the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, in a press conference from New York, who directly pointed to the Madrid City Council and the Community of Madrid as responsible for not having prevented this eviction.

"Unfortunately, the Madrid City Council and the Community of Madrid, who are more concerned with buying luxury penthouses [in reference to the penthouse the Madrid government tried to buy], have ignored an issue that they should have resolved," Sánchez reproached the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor of the Spanish capital, José Luis Martínez Almeida. Despite pointing directly at the Madrid institutions, Sánchez also asked for "responsibility" from the parliamentary groups in Congress to push forward the anti-eviction decree that the PP, Vox, and also Junts struck down. However, he did not specify when he plans to bring it back to the lower house. "This decree law would have prevented us from experiencing the social tragedy that has taken place today in Spain. The government will provide a response, but I ask for high-mindedness and responsibility from the groups to push forward the housing decree that is necessary," affirmed Sánchez, without ruling out or committing to approving it next week at the council of ministers.

Following the eviction, some 10,000 people went out to protest in Madrid, according to data from the Spanish Government Delegation. They gathered in front of the controversial penthouse bought by Isabel Ayuso's government in the Madrid neighborhood of Chamberí to claim this property for Maricarmen, who had to leave what had been her home for seven decades on a stretcher. During the protests, they blocked streets in the center and chanted slogans such as "We are all Maricarmen!" or "Ayuso resign."

This Wednesday's eviction is the harshest face of an emergency that has been hitting the State for some time and that has triggered an exchange of political reproaches. Before Sánchez's intervention, the Spanish government had already pressured the Community of Madrid and the City Council for their inaction, and the left-wing partners have demanded the immediate recovery of the Spanish executive's housing decree that incorporates an anti-eviction measure, and which the PP, Vox, and Junts struck down at the time. Sources from Junts consulted by the ARA assure that "they have always said that in the case of large holders there was consensus [to apply anti-eviction measures]," but they accuse the PSOE and Sumar government "of not wanting to limit it in the case of the large ones."

In fact, Maricarmen's eviction coincides with the report by the Barcelona Tenants' Union regarding the suicide of Olga, a woman from L'Hospitalet, a few months after having been evicted. At the same time, this Monday the eviction of Sílvia Sanz from her apartment in the Gràcia neighborhood (Barcelona), where she had lived for 13 years, took place. Social organizations have been demanding for months the reinstatement of the anti-eviction moratorium for vulnerable tenants to avoid situations like these.

A blocked decree

The anti-eviction moratorium was in effect until December 31, 2025, and the Spanish government proposed extending it in an omnibus decree (which incorporated fiscal and energy measures due to the war in Ukraine and later in the Middle East). The right wing in Congress (PP, Vox, and Junts), however, voted it down. Afterwards, the Spanish government tried again by splitting up the text (separating the measures strictly linked to housing), but it did not prosper either. Everyone expected the Spanish government to approve it again in the last Council of Ministers before the summer holidays, but the Moncloa decided to leave it for September. The argument of the right is that private landlords should not have to bear the housing emergency of those who cannot afford rent increases—in the case of Maricarmen, it exceeded her pension—and that it should be the State that provides the alternative, even when one has lived in the same property their whole life. However, administrative waiting lists are saturated.

"I don't know what Pedro Sánchez's government is doing, but it is exactly the opposite of what was expected when people voted for them on July 23, 2023. I do not understand this police deployment; it has been brutal violence against the activists, against Maricarmen herself," stated the leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, in the corridors of Congress.

"Today is a turning point," affirmed the spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, Ernest Urtasun, who demanded that "all political forces" support a decree that, in his view, should be approved as early as next week in the Council of Ministers. In fact, Urtasun said that they are "negotiating" with all forces. "We don't have time," he insisted. Minister Pablo Bustinduy (Sumar) reprimanded the PSOE for not having done it sooner: "It is an agreement announced at the Moncloa [in July] and it has not been fulfilled, and the results are these. It cannot wait any longer".

The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, who is also facing a new front due to the Maricarmen case, has also appealed to the partners of the investiture bloc. Rodríguez has criticized the Madrid government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP), as well as the City Council, for having laid out a "red carpet" for investment funds like those that have acquired the Madrid resident's home. This Tuesday, in fact, the Community inaugurated The District fair, the international real estate investment meeting that left Barcelona last year due to social pressure. Meanwhile, PP leaders in Congress are downplaying the housing drama. They speak of an isolated case and appeal for the construction of housing

A case that began eight years ago

In 2018, the family that owned the building sold the entire property to Renta Corporación, one of the largest real estate groups in the country. At that time, they proposed to Maricarmen that she could buy the apartment, but she could not afford the price they were asking. It is at this moment that the investment fund and the problems appear. Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión S.L. first proposed an increase in the rent to 2,650 euros. "I refuse to leave. I will fight," the neighbor claimed some time ago.