Housing crisis set to dominate Spain’s snap election
Demonstrators gather after learning that Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old pensioner whose eviction triggered nationwide protests in Spain, had died at a hospital in Madrid on Wednesday. | AFP-JIJI
Oct 8, 2026
Madrid – After simmering below the surface for years, anger over a lack of affordable housing in Spain has bubbled over and precipitated a general election that will be dominated by the crisis.
The spark was ignited on Sept. 23 when 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her lifelong Madrid home on a stretcher after the real estate firm that owned the apartment drastically hiked the rent.
Abascal, who died on Wednesday, became the symbol of a crisis that cuts across Spanish society: young and old, renters and buyers, workers and pensioners.
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