The Madrid Tenants Union published this Friday on its social networks a video of Maricarmen from the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid, where she has been admitted since she was evicted from her home in the Retiro neighborhood last Wednesday, despite the protests of 400 people and all attempts to stop the eviction. “From here, I want to thank all the people who have been with me, accompanying me in this stage of my life to be able to defend my house,” says the elderly woman, with her voice breaking with emotion, lying on the articulated bed and wearing the hospital's nightgown. “I have not managed to defend my house, but I have fought so that others learn,” he laments. They are the first words and images of Maricarmen, 87, since the day of her eviction. The first night away from home he already spent in the hospital, suffering from severe stress and exhaustion.
The Government delegation in Madrid will investigate the police action during the eviction of Maricarmen
The Government Delegation in Madrid will investigate the police action that took place last Wednesday during the eviction of Maricarmen, the 87-year-old woman who was evicted from the home where she had resided for 70 years in the district of Retiro. This has been confirmed by sources from the Government Delegation after moments of tension, pushing and occasional police charges against people gathered to try to prevent the judicial launch were recorded during the day on Wednesday.
The Government Delegation itself disassociated itself early that day from the device deployed on Alcalde Sainz de Baranda Street and stressed that the National Police was acting in compliance with the mandate of the judicial commission in charge of carrying out the eviction. The judicial commission arrived around 9:30 a.m. and, during the following hours, there were occasional clashes with the people gathered, who had spent the night in front of the building to try to prevent the launch.
Bustinduy increases pressure on the PSOE so that the housing decree is approved on Tuesday in the council of ministers: "I cannot conceive another scenario"
The Minister of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, has warned his partner in the Socialist Government that the decree with measures on housing to avoid eviction situations like that of Maricarmen must be approved on Tuesday: “I cannot conceive of another scenario.”
"Now I cannot conceive another scenario in which the package of housing measures is approved on Tuesday... There are moments in politics that are determining and decisive and that must be acted on. The Government has to be up to the task," he said in an interview on RNE despite the fact that the socialist part of the Executive has not set a date to approve this package of measures on rent.
Bustinduy has stressed that this legislature “cannot end without doing what we had to do” and has stressed that we will have to give in and put in enough political will. The minister has pointed out that although the measures proposed by Junts are not the model of the left, it is possible that in a scenario of rent freezes there could be tax credit mechanisms for small property owners, as requested by the Catalan independentists.
The decree needs the votes of Junts and Podemos to be validated in the Congress of Deputies, and Bustinduy believes that “evidently there will have to be transfers and have some of the measures that Junts has proposed in order for it to have the votes.” Given the message written by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who responded yesterday to Sumar to “see if the whole move” for the eviction of Maricarmen serves to resolve their internal problem, the minister has asked for responsibility “instead of making a fuss on the networks.”
"Mr. Puente had the wrong tone, the wrong adversary, and we must let him rectify it and not delve into the wound. We must focus on solving the housing problem. In politics, mistakes are made and we must not go into overdrive about that," he said.
The judge releases the Plus Ultra lender detained in Germany with precautionary measures
The judge in the Plus Ultra case has agreed this Friday to release with precautionary measures the Dutch financier Simón Leendert Verhoeven, who was arrested in Germany after being wanted for the loans he granted to the airline and at whose home two gold bars were found.
This financier was taken this morning to the National Court from the Soto del Real prison, where he spent the night by decision of Judge José Luis Calama after being handed over to Spain on Thursday by the German authorities. According to legal sources, the person under investigation has decided to remain silent before the judge, arguing that he has not been able to read the judicial case, although he has offered to testify in a few days.
After his appearance, the magistrate held a hearing of precautionary measures and agreed to release him with the prohibition of leaving Spain, the obligation to appear in court every two days and to provide an address, which the financier has located in Mallorca.
This investigated person kept two gold bars, twelve luxury watches and numerous jewels in his home in Santa María de Camí (Mallorca), which was registered in October 2024 in compliance with a rogatory commission from Switzerland. According to the case summary, Verhoeven allegedly managed, together with Luis Felipe Baca Arbulu, already detained on the Caribbean island of Aruba, a criminal organization dedicated to money laundering and involved in the Plus Ultra case. According to this summary, the Dutchman acknowledged before the Geneva prosecutor that he owned three companies (Allpa Wira Trading UK, Wailea Investment LTD and Valerian Corporation) and that through them he had made loan contracts in favor of Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas.
Specifically, there is an invoice issued by Allpa Wira Trading for a sale of gold to the Dubai company Al Joud Precious Metal And Stones Trading for an amount of 122,417,000 million dirhams, equivalent to about 30 million euros. The account activity of Allpa Wira Trading AG is characterized by financial activities related to commodity trading. According to the results of the investigations carried out, the Swiss company Allpa Wira Trading AG is the parent company of the British company Allpa Wira Trading Uk LTD, which appears as the lending company of Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas.
Juan Jesús Vivas: “Normality does not consist of Ceuta hosting 15,000 people”
The president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, has stated in an interview on Cadena SER that the normality of the autonomous city requires that all the people who entered Ceuta irregularly and massively "leave": "Normality cannot consist of Ceuta having to welcome a number of immigrants that is around 15,000 people, 20% of the population of Ceuta," Vivas said. According to the president, the city is hosting more than 2,000 minors and in this sense, he has indicated that "the people of Ceuta cannot be given lessons in humanitarian attitude."
Regarding the transfer of minors to the Peninsula, President Vivas has said that there must be a “defined structural approach” and has defended that Ceuta has “maintained a position of absolute collaboration” and that they have “always” been sensitive to the best interests of the minor. “We defend that family reunification be done with the family in the first place, but it may not be the most convenient for the minor,” said Vivas, who, in this regard, is committed to “finding a guardian” or “an institution” to take care of the minor in their country of origin.
Sumar is optimistic about the approval of the housing decree: “There is room for agreement”
Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture and spokesman for Sumar, has been optimistic about the possibility of reaching an agreement that will allow the approval of the royal housing law decree that the Executive intended to have approved at the end of July. “There is room for agreement,” he said in an interview on Hoy por Hoy on Cadena SER. “The political will on the part of the government is there and I think that it would also be desirable and that we are going to try until the end,” he added.
The minister has also referred to the case of Maricarmen, the octogenarian woman who was evicted this Wednesday in Madrid, and has insisted that it is up to the Community of Madrid to offer her a housing alternative. Sumar has also requested that the home be expropriated due to the refusal of the company that owns it to negotiate. “The State cannot allow this type of dispute to arise,” he stated.
