The demonstration called this Saturday by the Tenants' Union of Madrid will not coincidentally pass by some of the most recognizable institutional points of the capital. Under the slogan "Not one more Maricarmen," the protest will begin at 6:30 PM at Puerta del Sol, go down Alcalá street to Cibeles, continue along the Paseo del Prado and Neptuno, and end in front of the Congress of Deputies. The organizers want the march to pass by the offices of the administrations to which they attribute different political responsibilities in the housing crisis and in the lack of a solution that would allow Maricarmen to remain in her home.
Maricarmen, 87 years old, was evicted this week from the home in the Retiro district where she had lived since 1956. The conflict did not arise from non-payment, but from the termination of the last subrogation of an old rent contract, after the courts ultimately ruled in favor of the property owner. The City Council and the Community maintain that they offered residential or assistance alternatives, while Maricarmen and the Union considered that none guaranteed an adequate solution that would allow her to maintain her autonomy and remain connected to her environment. The Ministry of Housing also tried to mediate and explore the purchase of the property, ultimately failing to prevent the eviction.
Sol: the protest starts in front of Ayuso's Government
The starting point is the Puerta del Sol because the Royal Post House, the seat of the Presidency of the Community of Madrid, is located there. For the Union, the first stop aims to point out the regional government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and demand greater regional intervention in public housing, protection of vulnerable people, and housing alternatives. The organization believes that the Community did not offer Maricarmen a solution that met her demands before the eviction, although the regional Executive has defended that it did provide resources at her disposal.
The dispute over who had the capacity to act has become one of the major debates following the launch. Pedro Sánchez publicly blamed the Community of Madrid and the City Council for not having found an alternative, while leaders of the PP have replied that the legal framework that allowed the eviction fundamentally depends on state legislation. These are opposing political positions on a case that involves the competencies of different administrations.
Cibeles: the City Council, second stop
From Sol, the march will go down Alcalá to Cibeles, where the Cibeles Palace and the main headquarters of the City Council of Madrid are located. The stop also aims to transfer the protest to the municipal government of José Luis Martínez-Almeida, to which the Union demands a greater response from municipal services and housing policies of the capital.
Almeida has rejected that interpretation and has explicitly questioned the route. The mayor maintains that the protesters should head to Moncloa because the decisive rules in a procedure like that of Maricarmen, among them a large part of the legislation on leases, civil law, and judicial processes, correspond to the State. "They should go to the Palace of Moncloa," he stated this Friday, defending that Ayuso and he do not have the capacity to modify that legal framework.
The response from the housing movement is that the problem does not depend exclusively on a state law. Its organizers argue that regional and municipal administrations also have tools in areas such as public housing, residential emergency, social services, or property acquisition, although the specific scope of those competencies is different from that of the State. The Ombudsman has avoided pointing to a single institution and has called for "urgent measures" from all public authorities after the case.
Congress: where the Union wants to change the laws
After Cibeles, the protesters will go down the Paseo del Prado, pass by Neptune and the Plaza de las Cortes and end in front of the Congress of Deputies. That final point has a different logic: it is no longer just about demanding a solution for Maricarmen, but about calling for legislative changes so that other tenants do not end up in a similar situation.
The Union and the Confederation of Tenant Unions have presented precisely this week a proposal dubbed as "Maricarmen decree". Among its demands are measures against evictions, changes in the Urban Leasing Law, effective extensions of contracts, rent freezes, and mechanisms for certain contracts to be renewed indefinitely, in addition to preventing expulsions that the organization considers to lack just cause. These are proposals from the tenant movement and not measures that are currently approved.
The election of Congress also gains importance because any state-wide reform on rents or eviction procedures needs to go through the Cortes. The Executive is negotiating these days a new housing package and Sumar has pressured the PSOE to approve additional measures at the next Council of Ministers, but any royal decree law will subsequently have to be validated by the deputies. The previous attempt by the Government to strengthen certain protections regarding rentals fell through after failing to secure enough votes in the Chamber.
Three places to point out three levels of responsibility
The journey thus summarizes the message that the Union intends to convey: Sol represents the Community of Madrid, Cibeles the City Council, and Congress the state and legislative sphere. It does not mean that the three institutions have exactly the same competencies nor that any of them could have stopped a firm judicial resolution on their own. Precisely this distribution of responsibilities has become one of the points of political confrontation after the Maricarmen case.
The Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid has spoken of a joint "failure" of the administrations, while Oxfam Intermón has demanded a "coordinated and urgent" response from all levels of government. From the City Council and the PP, emphasis is placed on the regulatory competencies of the State; from the central Government, the Madrid administrations are also pointed out for their competencies in social and housing policies.
From a specific eviction to a national protest for housing
The mobilization also aims for the case to stop being solely that of a neighbor from Retiro. After being evicted and transferred to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, Maricarmen spread a message calling for participation in the protest. "I have not managed to defend my home, but I have fought for others to learn to fight," she stated in remarks distributed by the Union.
The organization has turned its name into the slogan of a broader campaign against evictions and is preparing mobilizations in dozens of cities. That is why the route this Saturday starts in front of the Madrid government, passes by the City Hall, and ends in front of the state legislative power: the organizers want to physically represent during the march their argument that the housing crisis affects all administrations and that solutions must come through both local and regional public policies as well as changes in state laws.
The discussion about the extent of each institution's responsibility will remain open. What the chosen itinerary clearly conveys is the political message of the call: the march seeks not only to remember Maricarmen's eviction but to use her case to demand actions from Sol, Cibeles, and Congress and turn it into a symbol of a much broader claim about access to and permanence in housing.