Madrid allows 87-year-old tenant to return to apartment after mass protests

Authorities in the Spanish capital Madrid have allowed an 87-year-old to return to her apartment after mass protests against forced evictions and housing shortages. The lawyer of the pensioner Maricarmen Abascal said this to journalists on Monday evening. The case moved the entire country and sparked a new debate about affordable housing.

"If this agreement that we have reached is signed," it will be "a better and more pleasing result for everyone," said the lawyer, Beatriz Duro, after a meeting lasting several hours with representatives of the city of Madrid. The disabled senior citizen went through a situation that no person should ever have to go through, the Spanish broadcaster rtve quoted the lawyer as saying.

Abascal was taken on a stretcher on Wednesday from her evicted apartment in Madrid, where she had rented for 70 years. An investor bought the property and, according to the tenants' association, increased the rental price by 275 percent to 2,650 euros. The pensioner has limited mobility and has a disability level of 50 percent. The case sparked protests across Spain.

Thousands of people are demanding action against the housing shortage

On Monday, around 2,000 demonstrators gathered again in Barcelona and demanded effective government measures to address the housing crisis. "We don't want a consolation, we want adequate housing," said the spokeswoman for the Catalan Tenants' Association, Carme Arcarazo. She called for a stop to rent increases, a ban on fixed-term rental contracts and measures against evictions. She was alluding to a legislative package that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's cabinet wants to pass this Tuesday.

Sánchez had announced that the government was working “hard” on a package of measures. However, the left-wing government coalition currently lacks a majority in parliament. A similar law had previously failed in parliament.