Arab News | Protesters demand Spanish government limit evictions, pensioner to return home

MADRID: The Spanish octogenarian whose eviction last week has triggered nationwide protests ​over Spain’s housing crisis will be able to return to her Madrid house after reaching an agreement with her landlord, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

Protesters camped outside the Madrid regional government’s headquarters for a third day to object to her eviction and demand stronger protection for tenants in the face of a housing shortage and soaring rents. The Spanish government said on Tuesday it was working to approve some relief measures.

Protests boiled over last week after police evicted 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal on a stretcher from her Madrid home of more than seven decades because of an eviction order secured by the investment fund that bought her apartment.

Abascal will pay a rent similar to the one she had under ‌a new eight-year contract, ‌her lawyer Beatriz Duro told a press briefing. The octogenarian, who was ​hospitalized ‌following ⁠her eviction, plans ​to ⁠sign the deal once she feels better, the lawyer said, describing it as unprecedented to reach an agreement that reverts an already concluded eviction.

Her landlord could not be immediately reached for comment.

Last week, hundreds of people outside her building clashed with police, while the Socialist-led central government condemned the center-right regional administration for not preventing the eviction.

By Monday, hundreds of tents filled the central Puerta del Sol square, echoing the protests of 2011 when it was occupied for a month by activists demonstrating against austerity measures adopted during the global financial crisis.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his cabinet, which meets on Tuesday, would approve some ⁠housing relief measures that he did not detail and called for parties to back ‌them in parliament at a later vote, saying protecting vulnerable tenants “is not ‌a matter of ideology but of humanity.”

Unlike in the financial crisis, when ​many evictions were linked to mortgage defaults after a ‌property bubble burst, a growing share are now related to rent disputes, reflecting a shortage of properties. Rents have ‌on average doubled over the past decade, far outpacing salaries.

TENS OF THOUSANDS MARCH THROUGH MADRID

On Saturday, some 30,000 people marched through Madrid to object to the treatment of Abascal and others forced from their homes by investment funds.

Marchers shook keys and bore banners with slogans including “Speculators go home” and “Housing is for living.”

As night fell on Puerta del Sol, home to the office of Isabel Diaz ‌Ayuso, center-right president of the Madrid region, dozens of activists put up tents, and their number has steadily grown.

Blanca, a student, said young Spaniards were struggling to move ⁠out of their parents’ homes.

“Politicians ⁠not only do nothing but make it worse,” she said. “We’ve decided to put our foot down, so let’s hope they hear us.”

Further protests were set to take place across Spain on Monday, according to the Tenants’ Union, which has been co-ordinating the protests.

From her hospital bed in Madrid, Abascal said she could not join the demonstration and urged protesters to keep fighting.

“Be brave, fight, defend what is yours and, please, take care of yourselves; keep camping there for as long as your bodies can hold out and as long as you wish to. Let’s hope all this comes to a successful conclusion tomorrow,” she said in a video distributed by the Tenants’ Union.

Spain has a deficit of 750,000 homes, according to the central bank, which has said that figure could rise to over 1 million by 2028. Only about 120,000 are built each year, a sixth of the rate before the 2008 financial crisis.

Ayuso said the ​protests were an attempt to “change the rules of the ​game” on existing contracts and asked whether the activists thought there should be an age limit for paying rent.