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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned an unacceptable "tragedy" on Wednesday following the eviction of a frail 87-year-old pensioner from the home she had lived in for almost her entire life in Madrid, which reignited the debate on Wednesday regarding the persistent housing crisis in Spain.
Maricarmen lived for 70 years in the affluent Retiro neighborhood of Madrid, next to the popular park of the same name declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and always paid her rent, according to her supporters.
VIDEO. THOUSANDS PROTEST IN MADRID OVER THE EVICTION OF 87-YEAR-OLD MARICARMEN
The pensioner had been involved for years in a legal battle against a real estate company that acquired her apartment and raised the monthly rent by 275%, to 2,650 euros, according to the Madrid Tenants' Union.
The dispute reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the company and paved the way for the eviction, the union added.
Police officers forcibly removed dozens of activists who had camped out in front of Maricarmen's building to try to prevent the eviction on Wednesday, amidst shouts of "shame!" from the protesters.
Health personnel transported the pensioner, who requires a wheelchair, on a stretcher to an ambulance, while protesters chanted "Maricarmen, you are not alone!" behind a security cordon.
"This is a social tragedy that we cannot accept," Sánchez told reporters in New York, where the socialist politician is attending the UN General Assembly, criticizing the role of the conservative authorities of the Community of Madrid.
Amnesty International Spain denounced "a violation of human rights."
"It is not an isolated case, it is just one more portrait of the suffering experienced by thousands of households in Spain," the organization stated in a press release.
In an interview recorded on Tuesday for the public broadcaster RTVE, Maricarmen described the company as "inhumane, and all to make money."
"You cannot make a person live for seven years the way I have been living, with a machete at the back of my neck ready to cut it off at the next moment," she said, holding national, regional, and municipal authorities responsible for her situation.
Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez insisted that the left-wing government has tried several times to pass a law to prohibit these types of evictions.
In this regard, Sánchez said that passing the "absolutely necessary" law was "a shared responsibility" between his minority left-wing coalition and the rest of parliament.
Access to housing has been among the main concerns of Spaniards for years, in a context where supply does not meet demand and rents and purchase prices continue to skyrocket, as is happening in other European Union countries.
"I am leaving Madrid, because Madrid is not Madrid. And the people of Madrid are no longer us. It's all the tourists you have on Gran Vía," Maricarmen told RTVE.
[Publicidad]