87-Year-Old Evicted from Home After 70 Years as Police Use Pepper Spray on Protesters

An 87-year-old woman in fragile health was carried out of her Madrid home on a stretcher Wednesday, after a long legal battle that ended with police forcing the door open and using pepper spray on neighbors and activists trying to stop the eviction. The case of Maricarmen, as she is known, has become a symbol of Spain's housing crisis. Her family had lived in the apartment for nearly 70 years. Multiple failures — court rulings, a landlord who refused to negotiate, and government inaction — led to her removal. **A contract signed under Franco's laws** In 1956, Maricarmen's father signed the original rental contract. He had to sign it himself because married women at the time were legally barred from signing contracts without their husband's permission — a rule dating back to the 19th century. After her father died in 1960, her mother took over the lease. In 2005, after her mother's death, Maricarmen became the leaseholder at age 66. This was a "second subrogation" — a transfer of the contract that Spanish law does not protect in the same way. But the owners at the time respected her old, low rent. **A 300% rent increase and a court battle** In 2018, a company called Renta Corporación bought the building and offered to sell Maricarmen the apartment for €250,000. She could not afford it on her €1,450 monthly pension. In 2020, a company called Urbagestión bought the apartment. It offered her a new rental contract with a 300% increase — €1,650 per month, which was €200 more than her entire pension. "That's mocking people. I didn't even reply," Maricarmen told elDiario.es. Urbagestión argued that her contract had expired in 2007 because the second subrogation was never formally registered. A lower court disagreed. But the Supreme Court ruled in the company's favor, clearing the way for eviction. **A letter, delays, and political deadlock** In May 2024, Maricarmen received a letter ordering her to leave. A court set the eviction for October 29, 2024. It was postponed twice — once to allow a vulnerability report, and once to give authorities time to offer alternative housing. Maricarmen always said she wanted only to stay in her home until she died. In February 2026, the Spanish Parliament voted down a moratorium on evictions that had protected vulnerable people since the pandemic. The parties Junts, PP, and Vox opposed it, arguing it protected illegal occupiers. The United Nations asked Spain to stop the eviction. The government said it supported the request but could not halt the court order. It tried to mediate and offered to buy the apartment through a public housing program. Urbagestión refused. **Last-minute efforts fail** A housing decree that would have created permanent anti-eviction protections stalled in Parliament. Podemos and Junts blocked it over unrelated disputes. The government has not yet reintroduced it. Even as protesters camped outside Maricarmen's door, an anonymous writer offered to pay the rent the company was demanding — now €2,650 per month. There was no positive response. On the morning of the eviction, the party Más Madrid asked the government delegation to stop it. The delegation said it opposed the eviction but that police were following a court order, which the government cannot override. Madrid's mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, said social services would provide Maricarmen with accommodation after she was removed from the home where her family had lived for seven decades.