Maricarmen Abascal has sent this Saturday a direct message to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to ask him that the next Council of Ministers approve a law decree that serves as "the first step to end the system" that allowed her eviction. The woman, 87 years old, remains hospitalized at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital after suffering from severe exhaustion during the eviction carried out on Wednesday, when she had to leave the home in the Madrid neighborhood of Retiro where she had lived for 71 years. This is the second video she has released from the hospital through the Tenants' Union.
"This is a message for Pedro Sánchez, but also for all the people who have supported me these days," begins Maricarmen, who asks that her case does not end solely in the shock generated by the images of the eviction. "I want what has happened to me to serve so that it does not happen to other people, I want it to serve so that people fight and so that the laws that have allowed my eviction are changed," she asserts. Specifically, she demands a regulation that prevents a person from being expelled from their home without having a housing alternative.
A "Maricarmen decree" for next Tuesday
The request names a proposal that the tenant movement has been advocating since this week. The Tenants' Union and the State Confederation of Tenants' Unions have dubbed a package of measures they want to bring to the Government and parliamentary groups as "Maricarmen decree". Among their main demands are structural measures against evictions, the freezing of rents, the automatic or indefinite renewal of certain contracts, and changes to the Urban Leasing Law to limit the use of temporary contracts and room rentals as a way to evade ordinary regulation. They also demand that when a landlord wants to recover a rented property, they must provide a justified cause and that the tenant can be compensated in certain cases.
Maricarmen asks that the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, September 29 convert part of those demands into an immediate norm. "I want you to approve the Maricarmen decree, that it be a first step that ends this system," she points out in the message disseminated by the Union, which has also launched a petition to increase pressure on the Executive. The organization insists that an individual solution for the 87-year-old woman would not be sufficient if the framework that, in its view, allows similar situations to recur is not modified.
Sumar threatens not to attend the Council of Ministers
The pressure does not only come from the street. Sumar has threatened not to attend the next Council of Ministers if the agenda does not include a new housing decree. "Next Tuesday, the Council of Ministers has to approve a package of effective measures against the housing crisis. Quick fixes won't work," the party has warned, recalling that it already had a similar confrontation with the PSOE months ago to force the approval of rental protection measures.
The Ministry of Housing has expressed its willingness for the package to reach the Council on Tuesday and is maintaining negotiations with parliamentary groups, including Junts, whose position is relevant for a subsequent ratification in Congress. Among the measures being considered are restrictions on the purchase of homes by certain investment funds and greater protections against the eviction of vulnerable tenants residing in properties owned by these companies. The problem for the Executive is twofold: first, it needs to close an internal agreement between PSOE and Sumar, and then gather a sufficient parliamentary majority to keep any royal decree law in force.
The case that has reopened the debate on housing
Maricarmen was evicted on Wednesday after years of litigation over the home in which she had lived since 1956. The conflict did not arise from a non-payment, but from the end of the protection derived from an old rent contract and the successive subrogations. The property obtained judicial backing to recover the property, and the eviction was carried out after several previous attempts, despite the mobilization of neighbors, activists, and political representatives. After leaving the apartment, Maricarmen was taken to the Gregorio Marañón.
The case has also provoked a crossfire of accusations between administrations. The central Government has pointed to the Community of Madrid and the City Council for not having offered a sufficient solution, while the administrations governed by the PP maintain that a good part of the legal framework of leases and evictions depends on the State. The owner of the property, Urbagestión, has defended its actions and even proposed a formula for the City Council to temporarily take over the housing, a proposal that the City Council considered unfeasible in the terms proposed although it offered to continue mediating.
A demonstration from Sol to Congress
The video of Maricarmen has also been disseminated just a few hours before the demonstration called this Saturday in Madrid under the slogan "Not one more Maricarmen". The protest will begin at 6:30 PM at the Puerta del Sol, will pass through Calle Alcalá, Cibeles, and Neptuno, and will end in front of the Congress of Deputies. The Tenants' Union wants to turn the case into a claim directed simultaneously at the Community of Madrid, the City Council, and the state legislator.
From the hospital, Maricarmen has once again called for participation. "If we unite, we can achieve it," she states in her message, in which she encourages maintaining mobilization beyond her own situation. The Union aims for her case to serve as a symbol of a broader problem and has coordinated protests and actions with organizations from other cities.
From an individual case to a legal change
The main message from Maricarmen is precisely that the response should not end in finding her another home. The tenants' movement admits that a potential purchase, expropriation, or transfer of her former apartment could resolve her personal situation, but argues that a structural change would be necessary to prevent new evictions without alternatives and reduce the insecurity of those who reach the end of their contracts. That is the philosophy behind the so-called "Maricarmen decree."
The ball is now in the roof of the Council of Ministers. The Executive has not yet finalized the definitive content of its housing package and any royal decree law will later require the support of Congress. Maricarmen, while she continues to be hospitalized, has tried to turn the impact of her eviction into political pressure: that on Tuesday there are not only announcements, but a first reform that prevents other people from going through a situation similar to hers.