María del Carmen Abascal’s lawyer has negotiated a deal setting rent on her Madrid apartment at 30% of her income for the next eight years
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NEED TO KNOW
- An 87-year-old woman evicted from her home of 70 years last week will be able to return, according to her lawyer
- María del Carmen Abascal, from Madrid’s Retiro neighborhood, was forcibly evicted on a stretcher on Wednesday, Sept. 23, prompting protests in the area and across Spain
- Her lawyer said on Monday, Sept. 28, that she negotiated an 8-year agreement that would set rent at 30% of her income
An 87-year-old woman evicted from her home of more than seven decades last week will be able to return, her lawyer has said.
María del Carmen “Maricarmen” Abascal had lived in her apartment in Madrid’s Retiro neighborhood for 71 years when she was forcibly removed on a stretcher on Wednesday, Sept. 23, prompting widespread protests in the neighborhood and across Spain.
An investment fund, Urbagestión, acquired the apartment building in 2018, increasing Abascal’s rent, according to Spanish outlet El País.
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Her rent was initially €500 ($572), before it increased to €2,650 ($3,014), and then lowered again to €1,650 ($1,877). However, her monthly pension is €1,350 ($1,535), so this was still unaffordable.
Her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, met Urbagestión on Monday, Sept. 28, and she told a press conference that there had been “goodwill from both parties,” per the BBC.
Under a new agreement, Abascal would pay a similar amount of rent to her original fee — 30% of her income — for a period of eight years, according to Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.
However, she still has to approve the plans herself, as she was unable to take part in the meeting.
Duro explained that the 87-year-old, who was admitted to the hospital after her eviction, was being treated for exhaustion and would sign the agreement when she felt better, per BBC.
She said the agreement came “late” and after a “situation no one should ever have to endure,” but said it is a “better and happier outcome for everyone,” RTVE reported.
“Hopefully this will help change the housing paradigm and this right will begin to be regulated,” Duro added, per the broadcaster.
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As many as 1,000 protesters hailed the agreement at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, a major public square in the city center. Hundreds of camps have been set up in the location by people standing against Spain’s housing crisis, the BBC reported.
Abascal moved to the apartment with her family in the mid-1950s, when she was 17. Her father signed an old-style regulated tenancy agreement at the time, and he passed it to his wife after his death. When she died in 2005, it passed to Abascal.
Three previous attempts to evict the 87-year-old were denied by the courts, but in March, the Supreme Court ruled against her, overturning a January 2022 decision in her favor.
After postponements, the eviction went ahead on Wednesday, with Abascal being notified to leave and given 30 minutes to pack her essentials.
A number of protesters were removed from the doorway of the building by authorities, and supporters chanted as Abascal was driven away in an ambulance. That night, nearly 10,000 people protested in the neighborhood, chanting, “Shame on you.”
On Friday, Sept. 25, the Madrid City Council rejected an “emergency proposal” from Urbagestión that would have allowed Abascal to return to her apartment, per RTVE. The company asked that the apartment be included in a social housing program, but the council said the property “does not meet the legal requirements.”
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Local authorities previously claimed Abascal rejected alternatives offered to her, including housing in a residential facility, before her eviction. She rejected it again after she left the apartment, saying she would rather move in with relatives.
PEOPLE reached out to Beatriz Duro and Urbagestión for comment but did not immediately hear back.
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