Spanish pensioner Maricarmen, symbol of country's housing crisis, dead at 87

Spanish pensioner Maricarmen, symbol of country's housing crisis, dead at 87

Makeshift memorials crop up at several sites, while politicians exchange recriminations

María del Carmen Abascal, a Spanish pensioner known widely as Maricarmen, died suddenly on Wednesday, two weeks after she was evicted from her apartment.

Her death is set to reinvigorate the protest movement and further polarize Spain ahead of a national election next month, in which housing will be a central issue.

Sympathizers with Maricarmen's cause left candles, flowers and letters overnight at an impromptu shrine in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol, where around 1,000 people have camped for two weeks to protest Spain's housing affordability crisis since Maricarmen's eviction on Sept. 23 captured the nation's attention.

On the door of her old home, a sixth-floor apartment near Madrid's Retiro park, a piece of paper was taped with the handwritten message "Rest in Peace Maricarmen," accompanied by the drawing of a black heart. Many left more messages on the street outside.

"Your death won't be in vain. We will continue the struggle," read one of the messages.

In Barcelona, a popular graffiti artist painted Maricarmen, 87, in angelic form, complete with halo, wings and a white toga. She is holding a key up, apparently the key to the home she didn't return to.

Many protesters believe that Maricarmen's demise was caused by the eviction. Thousands protested when police carried Maricarmen, who used a wheelchair, on a stretcher from her home of seven decades last month. She died in a hospital where she was taken, and her lawyer did not disclose a cause of death.

One sign in Puerta de Sol read, "These are not deaths, they are murders," echoing chants that rang out during a march toward the parliament late Wednesday, when news of her death spread.

"She was the flame that led us to start this camp-in and protest," 28-year-old receptionist María Holgado said outside her tent on Thursday. "Her death shocked us and left us all incredibly sad, but I believe it will give us more energy and conviction to keep protesting and demanding our rights so that there is not one more murder."

"The blame falls on the property owners and vulture funds that are taking advantage of a basic right and making loads of money from it," she added.

Maricarmen Abascal is shown taking part in a protest in Madrid on May 24 against the high cost of living. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Holgado said she and her partner could only afford a tiny, one-room apartment, and are paying dearly for it. Her case is typical. The average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years, according to the real estate website Idealista.

Similar protests and camp-ins have stayed active in Barcelona and other major cities. The main organizers of the protests, Madrid's Tenants Union, has called for another march on Thursday.

The televised images of Maricarmen being taken from her home last month shook Spanish politics to the core.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez first tried to push through emergency housing measures to stop evictions and curb real estate speculation. When right-wing parties aligned to stop the legislation in parliament, Sánchez doubled down by calling snap elections earlier this week.

Sánchez, who is hoping to use the housing question to galvanize progressives for the Nov. 29 election, was quick to send his condolences to Maricarmen's family and friends on social media.

The protest camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, with demonstrators demanding political action to halt evictions and address the housing crisis, is shown on Oct. 6. (Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters)

To stay in power, Sánchez will likely need to maintain the current coalition between his Socialists and a smaller party further to the left. They have been trailing the right-wing parties in polls.

"In political terms, this will be remembered as a milestone," analyst Alejandro Quiroga, a politics professor at Madrid's Complutense University, told The Associated Press. "Her death completes the narrative that evictions and real estate speculation literally kill."

Minute of silence in some legislatures

On Thursday, members of left-wing parties held a minute of silence outside both the regional parliament and town hall of Madrid. Right-wing politicians of the conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox did not participate in either, some folding their arms.

Opposition leader Manuela Bergerot of the leftist Mas Madrid party said Maricarmen ​had died because of "miserable people ⁠who put gain above a person's life … those responsible will carry that with them for their remaining days."

She added that the last thing Madrid leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso of the Popular Party had done while Maricarmen was alive was "laugh at her." That was reference to when Ayuso quipped on Sept. 28: "At what age do I get to stop paying ⁠my landlords? Let me know."

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Right-wing parties have repeatedly called on the government to send in police to break up the camp-in in Puerta del Sol. The government has thus far refused.

The regional and municipal governments held by the Popular Party have for years pushed back against attempts by Sánchez's government to regulate rental costs. The Popular Party argues that regulation hurts investment when Spain needs hundreds of thousands of new homes.