Madrid protest camp grows after eviction outrage

Hundreds of protesters were camped out in the heart of Madrid on Sunday to demand better protections for tenants after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her lifelong home triggered outrage.

The demonstrators had set up around 100 tents across much of the vast Puerta del Sol public square in front of the Spanish capital's regional administration building, an AFP photographer saw.

Most had spent all night there, following a Saturday demonstration that had rallied tens of thousands of people in the streets of Madrid rattling keys and blowing whistles.

Government authorities put the turnout at around 25,000, while the Madrid Tenants' Union, which organised the protest, said over 300,000 had taken part.

The protest spoke to longstanding resentment in Madrid and other cities in Spain over rising housing costs, which is a burning issue ahead of general elections due to take place next year.

The eviction on Wednesday of the 87-year-old, Maricarmen Abascal, who was carried from her Madrid flat on a stretcher after police broke down her door, threw the spotlight back on the problem and galvanised protesters.

"We can't take any more. Either the rental system falls, or the government falls," the Madrid Tenants' Union said on X.

It called on city residents to join the Puerta del Sol protest camp.

"The feeling is that the people are not going anywhere until something changes, once and for all, for everyone and forever," one of the protesters, 47-year-old psychologist Maria Juarez, told AFPTV.

"I hope that what happened to Maricarmen will be a turning point in this issue, in this serious problem housing problem," said another, 40-year-old pharmacy employee Ricardo Lopez.

"We're prepared -- or at least I am -- to stay here all night if I have to," he added.

Abascal was forced to leave the apartment where she had lived for 70 years after a real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275 percent to 2,650 euros ($3,000), according to the union.

Now a symbol of Spain's housing crisis, she had urged Spaniards to join the protest in a video message posted online just hours before it got under way.

"I want what has happened to me to serve so that it does not happen to other people," she said from hospital, where she has been treated for exhaustion since her eviction.

"I want it to encourage people to fight and to help change the laws that have allowed me to be evicted," she added in the video, posted by the tenants' union.

In Saturday's protest, many taking part said that the rental market had become impossible.

"It is a struggle to find a place you can afford, then you live in fear of being forced out," demonstrator Enrique Ortega de Miguel, a 38-year-old graphic designer who lives with his mother, told AFP.

Puerta del Sol -- a busy hub intensively used by commuters and tourists -- has been the venue for past protests. In 2011, youth demonstrators railing against poor economic conditions and corruption occupied it for three weeks.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has faced regular protests across Spain over housing since Abascal's eviction.

The government is expected to approve a package of measures dubbed the "Maricarmen decree" at its next cabinet meeting, which would include the automatic renewal of rental contracts and further restrictions on evictions.

But it is unclear whether the package will be approved by parliament, where Sanchez's government lacks a majority.

While a similar bill was defeated earlier this year, Abascal's case has increased pressure on political parties to act.

The Bank of Spain estimates the country of around 50 million people is short of 700,000 homes, based on the gap between demand and new construction.

Spain has little public housing, while rents have been driven up by increased demand, including from tourism and population growth linked to immigration, analysts say.