The president of the Congress, the socialist Francina Armengol, is expected to propose to her colleagues that the Lower House observe a minute of silence in memory of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction became a symbol of the fight for decent housing.
Armengol will make this proposal at the beginning of the meeting of the Permanent Deputation of the Congress, the body that performs the functions of the Plenary between legislatures, called for next Friday, October 16, in order to validate two royal decrees approved in the last Council of Ministers.
In that same session of the Permanent Deputation, the president will also call on the deputies to observe a minute of silence for the victims of gender-based violence, a gesture that has been a common practice in most of the Plenary sessions of the recently concluded legislature, according to parliamentary sources who spoke to Europa Press.
Reactions and accusations of manipulation
It remains to be seen whether the deputies of the PP and Vox will join Armengol's request, after their representatives in the Assembly of Madrid refused to participate in a tribute to Maricarmen, who was evicted two weeks ago from the home she was renting.
In this context, the leader of the PP and candidate for the Presidency of the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has accused the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, and the PSOE of intending to "manipulate" Spaniards with housing, without making explicit reference to Maricarmen, although warning that "it is not going to fly."
Feijóo made this statement before the National Executive Board of the PP, gathered to set in motion the machinery for the upcoming general elections. Before that meeting, in statements to the media, several PP leaders expressed their condolences for the death of the octogenarian, but demanded not to "instrumentalize" her death as an "electoral bait" against a Government that "did not lift a finger for her in life."