Spain’s coalition government announced on Tuesday that it had adopted new measures to tackle the country’s housing crisis after the forced eviction of an 87-year-old pensioner from her apartment in Madrid last week, sparking nationwide solidarity protests.
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said the housing legislation includes a ban on evictions until 2030, stricter rules for short-term rentals and a two-year extension for existing leases.
“It is time to intervene in the speculative real estate market and start rebalancing the balance between citizens and vulture funds,” Garcia, who belongs to Sumar, the junior coalition partner of the left-wing government, wrote in an article on X.
The legislation still needs to be passed by Parliament
The Spanish government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his ministers, approved the measures after a meeting.
But because Sanchez leads a minority government, he still depends on votes from a number of other parties in Parliament before the bill passes.
Sanchez’s ruling Socialists were engaged until Tuesday in talks with their coalition partners, Sumar and others.
Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez is expected to address a press conference on Tuesday.
A case that sparked massive protests in Spain
Last week, images and videos showing Maria del Carmen Abascal – known by her nickname Maricarmen – being escorted out of her apartment by riot police struck a chord among Spaniards who have long called for a solution to the country’s housing crisis.
Maricarmen’s father first rented the property in 1956 in Madrid’s Retiro neighborhood and she remained a tenant after her parents died.
spanish newspaper El País reported that Maricarmen rented the apartment from a private owner until 2018, after which a real estate company acquired the property and took over management.
According to the newspaper, the dispute between Maricarmen and the real estate company lasted eight years and their latest attempt to evict the apartment was their fourth attempt.
The issue has put the Spanish real estate market in the spotlight, where many long-term renters have been priced out of their apartments due to an affordability crisis and housing shortage in Europe’s fourth-largest economy.
Protesters rallied around Maricarmen’s cause, particularly because photos of her walking out of her building and into an ambulance were prominent on social media.
She is also in a wheelchair.
People then took to the streets of Madrid in their thousands on Saturday, with many ending their protest by setting up tents in Madrid’s historic Puerta del Sol square by the end of the night.
More people, including multi-generational families, joined on Sunday.
Maricarmen will return home due to ‘social mobilization’, lawyer says
Maricarmen’s lawyer said Monday that she will be able to return home, calling the victory a “result of social mobilization”.
“If this agreement that we have reached is signed, it will obviously be a better and happier result for everyone,” Abascal’s lawyer, Beatriz Duro, told reporters.
“I hope that this agreement, this different way of putting an end to this type of situation, which is unfortunately experienced daily in this country, will contribute to changing the paradigm in housing in general,” Duro said.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher
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