Maricarmen: Eviction of girl aged 87 highlights Spain’s housing scarcity

The dramatic eviction of an 87-year-old girl from the house in Madrid the place she lived for seven a long time has drawn consideration to the depth of Spain’s housing disaster.

The tenant of the flat within the Retiro space of central Madrid, Maricarmen, was unable to pay the lease set by the asset placement agency that owns it.

Maricarmen’s father first rented the property in 1956 and he or she continued because the tenant after her mother and father died, throughout which period there was a cap on the lease.

However, the corporate that purchased the property in 2018, Urbagestión, cited a authorized glitch permitting it to boost her lease from €500 (£428; $572) to €2,650.

It subsequently lowered the brand new lease to €1,650 however Maricarmen was nonetheless unable to pay it together with her month-to-month pension of €1,350.

Three earlier makes an attempt to evict her had been blocked by the courts and the case has obtained growing media consideration.

Supporters of Maricarmen camped exterior the constructing on Tuesday night time, joined by celebrities together with Javier Bardem’s brother, Carlos, and the singer Ana Belén, who learn out the poem Desahucio (Eviction) by Rafael Alberti.

Several hundred folks, largely kids, had gathered by the morning in a bid to forestall the eviction from going down, chanting “Maricarmen stays”. Some activists blocked the steps contained in the constructing.

In a video posted on social media, a tearful Maricarmen thanked those that had come out to assist her in opposition to “this merciless battle by somebody who needs to earn cash”.