Spanish PM slams housing crisis 'tragedy' after pensioner evicted

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned an unacceptable "tragedy" on Wednesday after an 87-year-old Madrid pensioner was evicted from her life-long home in one of the harshest expressions of Spain's chronic housing crisis.

Maricarmen had resided for 70 years in the upmarket central Retiro neighbourhood, next to the popular UNESCO-listed park of the same name, and always paid her rent, supporters say.

She had spent years in a legal battle against a real estate firm that had acquired her apartment and raised the monthly rent by 275 percent to 2,650 euros ($3,000), according to the Madrid renters' union.

The battle reached the Supreme Court which ruled in favour of the firm, clearing the way for the eviction, the union said.

Police officers charged and dragged away dozens of activists who had camped outside Maricarmen's building to try to stop the eviction on Wednesday, to cries of "shame!" from outraged protesters.

Health workers used a stretcher to escort the pensioner, who uses a wheelchair, into an ambulance as the protesters chanted "Maricarmen, you aren't alone!" behind a security cordon.

"This is a social tragedy that we cannot accept," Sanchez told journalists in New York, where the Socialist premier was attending the UN General Assembly, criticising the role of the conservative-run city and regional governments.

Amnesty International Spain slammed "a violation of human rights" and "a system that puts the speculative interests of a vulture fund before Maricarmen's right to stay in her house".

"It isn't an isolated case, it is just another portrayal of the suffering that thousands of households go through in Spain," Amnesty said in a statement.

In an interview with public broadcaster RTVE recorded on Tuesday, Maricarmen called the company "inhuman, and all in order to make money".

"You cannot make a person live for seven years with a machete hanging over their neck," she said, blaming the national, regional and city authorities for her plight.

Sanchez said approving an "absolutely necessary" law to prevent such evictions was "a shared responsibility" between his minority leftist coalition and the rest of parliament.

Housing has for years been a top concern for Spaniards as supply falls short of demand, with rents and purchasing prices soaring relentlessly as elsewhere in the European Union.

Residents in the world's second-most visited country blame short-term tourist rentals such as Airbnb for driving up prices and cutting supply, sparking protests in hotspots including Barcelona.