The Tenants Union calls a demonstration in Madrid after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal

The Tenants' Union will demonstrate this Saturday afternoon in Madrid under the slogan 'Not one more Maricarmen', after the eviction this week of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman who had to leave the home in which she lived for more than 70 years. The demonstration will begin at 6:30 p.m. in front of Puerta del Sol and will travel through the center of Madrid until it reaches Congress.

"We cannot continue to tolerate being expelled from our neighborhoods and our lives taken from us. We want houses to live in, not to speculate on," says the Tenants' Union in the call for the protest.

The mobilization comes after the Confederation of Tenants' Unions this Friday demanded that the Government immediately approve a housing decree with measures to intervene in the rental market and prevent new evictions of vulnerable people.

The organization has named the rule the Maricarmen Decree and demands that the Council of Ministers approve it next Tuesday. Furthermore, he has warned that, if the measures he proposes do not go ahead, "it makes no sense for this Government to continue forward."

Among the measures demanded by the Tenant Unions are structural mechanisms to prevent evictions, a reform of the Urban Leases Law (LAU) to regulate seasonal and room rentals and the freezing of current rental prices. They also ask to extend rental contracts and establish their automatic renewal to make them indefinite.

The Tenants' Unions also demanded that CCOO and UGT call a general strike for housing and the cost of living in case the decree does not prosper.

"How many more Maricarmen are needed for the parties to really react? How many more Maricarmen are needed for the labor unions to call a general strike?" stated their spokespersons Carme Arcarazo and Alicia del Río.

The demonstration will also be held on the eve of a key week for the housing decree being negotiated by the Government and on which the PSOE has to decide whether to take it to the Council of Ministers next Tuesday.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, linked the Maricarmen case this week to the need to move forward with the law and assured from New York that "if this decree had been approved before the summer, cases like Maricarmen's would not have happened."

Sumar has increased the pressure on the PSOE after the eviction of Maricarmen and demands that the decree reach the Council of Ministers on Tuesday "yes or yes." It also intends to include in the text the expropriation of the home from which the woman was evicted so that she can return to it. For its part, Junts assured this week that the PSOE is studying the housing proposals that the party delivered two weeks ago directly to Sánchez. The Executive continues to seek a parliamentary majority in the face of differences between Junts and Podemos to guarantee the subsequent validation of the royal decree law in Congress.