The spokesperson for ERC in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, reacted this Wednesday to the death of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman who was evicted on September 23 from the Madrid home where she had been living for 71 years.
Rufián published a brief message on his X account after the news of the death became known: "What sons of bitches". The ERC deputy accompanied those words with information about Maricarmen's death, without adding further explanations or explicitly pointing out to whom the comment was directed.
The reaction adds to those that have occurred during the night after the Tenants' Union of Madrid announced the death. Maricarmen had been hospitalized since the day her eviction was carried out and has died at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital.
Her case had provoked significant mobilization over the past few weeks. After the eviction, protests for housing intensified in Madrid and Maricarmen became one of the main symbols of the demands against evictions.
In recent days, an agreement had been reached for her to return to her home once she received her hospital discharge and formalize a new rental contract. Her death occurred before she could return to the property.
The news has also provoked a new mobilization in the center of Madrid. The participants in the camp at Puerta del Sol held a minute of silence for Maricarmen and, subsequently, dozens of people marched towards the Congress of Deputies, where they chanted slogans against evictions and in defense of the right to housing.