Eviction of 87-year-old puts Spain’s deepening housing crisis in the spotlight

Images of Maricarmen Abascal being forcibly removed from her home sparked protests and a reckoning over the country’s soaring real estate market

Images of an octogenarian being evicted from the home she had lived in for seven decades on a stretcher, flanked by protesters and police officers, sparked indignation across Spain.

Hours later, people began taking to the streets. In Madrid, an estimated 10,000 people turned up on Wednesday, wielding signs that read “Shame” and “Out with the vulture funds”, to protest against the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal. From the northern tip of Spain to the south, people poured into plazas calling for a nationwide reckoning over access to housing.

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