About 25,000 people, according to the count by the Government Delegation at 8:45 PM, have taken to the streets of Madrid this Saturday in a demonstration that started at 6:30 PM at the Puerta del Sol to demand accountability for the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal and to call for urgent measures that guarantee the right to housing.
The Tenants' Union, the organizer of the mobilization, has raised the participation to 300,000 people.
The march, which concluded in front of the Congress of Deputies, has been part of a day of simultaneous protests in 40 cities under the slogan "Not one more Maricarmen," following the eviction last Wednesday of the elderly neighbor from Madrid with a disability.
Throughout the route in the center of the capital, a wide intergenerational presence has been noted, with families, young people, and older people marching together.
During the march, the protesters chanted and displayed banners with slogans such as "Where is the progressive Government?", "Ayuso guilty, Government responsible," and "We want to see Maricarmen return."
Other slogans directed at the financial sector and institutions were also seen, including "A rent strike is needed now, a general strike is needed now," "Madrid will be the grave of rentism," "Vulture funds expropriation," or "Ayuso's penthouse for Maricarmen."
The spokesperson for the Tenants' Union of Madrid, Alicia del Río, has stated that the case of Maricarmen has represented a "point of no return" in the fight for housing in Spain and has called on the Government for the immediate approval this Tuesday of the so-called "Maricarmen royal decree."
In this regard, she warned the media that if the regulation does not progress, the Executive "makes no sense" and should reconsider its continuity.
Podemos rejects negotiating the housing decree with Junts
The political secretary and MEP of Podemos, Irene Montero, has rejected the central Government's discussions with other parliamentary groups about the "Maricarmen royal decree," warning that "the Government is negotiating with Junts" to impose "a swallow for all the people who are here today defending the right to housing."
"We believe that the Government is negotiating with Junts to make a swallow for all the people who are here today defending the right to housing and we will not accept it," Montero reiterated.
The leader of Podemos has demanded the expropriation of "650,000 homes in the hands of vulture funds" to allocate them for social rent, as well as the downward regulation of rental prices by law.
For her part, the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has pointed out that her party will "continue to pressure for the Government to approve the best possible royal decree law" on housing, although she has emphasized that this problem "is not solved by any royal decree law" without sustained mobilization in the streets.
In this context, Belarra defended during the demonstration that "houses have to be for living," highlighting her party's participation in this "historic mobilization because people have said enough."
Criticism of the "system" for the "dehumanization" of rent
The group of affected individuals from the block on Valverde Street, accompanied by the Tenants' Union of Madrid, has expressed their fatigue in the face of the "dehumanization" and "uncertainty" that tenants suffer, pointing out that enduring this reality means losing "money, quality of life, time, and health."
"We feel a lot of anger because, like Maricarmen, we did not choose to live this and, to defend ourselves from these giants, we end up losing our anonymity," they lamented.
The spokespersons of this block have directly pointed to the "system," to the "funds that profit from suffering," and to the "institutions that are doing nothing," denouncing that those who benefit from this situation "hide behind their companies."
They have also insisted that it is not just about the case of Maricarmen or specific buildings, but about the lack of political and business response that makes this scenario possible.
"If we unite, we can achieve it"
In a video disseminated by the Tenants' Union, Maricarmen herself has once again asked the public this Saturday to continue defending the right to housing and to join the protest.
"If we all unite, we can achieve indefinite contracts, we can achieve what we set out to do.
That is what I expect from you, thank you very much," Maricarmen concluded in the recording, in which the difficulties she suffers to speak normally are still noticeable.