Tens of thousands march in Madrid for housing rights after eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen
Protesters rallied over the forced removal of a woman who had lived 70 years in a Retiro flat, chanting 'No more Maricarmens.'
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid to demand the right to housing and to protest forced evictions, focusing on the case of an 87-year-old woman who was removed from the home she had occupied for 70 years.
Protesters marched under the slogan "No more Maricarmens," referring to the pensioner whose eviction has drawn wide attention across Spain.
Dispute over crowd size
The Ministry of the Interior said about 25,000 people attended the demonstration, while the organizers from the tenants' union claimed as many as 300,000 participants.
Maricarmen moved into the flat in the Retiro neighbourhood with her parents in 1956 and later inherited the lease. After the building was sold to a property company, she was asked to leave because her long-standing lease had been declared terminated.
Following several failed eviction attempts, she was removed from the flat on 23 September and was later taken to hospital.
Photo: DPA)
