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Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MADRID — Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched through central Madrid on Thursday to mourn the death of an 87-year-old Spanish pensioner whose eviction from her home ignited protests across the country and led to a snap election next month.
Maricarmen Abascal had been hospitalized for severe anxiety and exhaustion since her eviction on September 23. No cause of death has been announced.
Her death on Wednesday produced tears and anger in the Spanish capital's emblematic Puerta del Sol square, the epicenter of the movement where hundreds are camping in protest.
From Sol, where an improvised shrine of candles, flowers and placards lay on Thursday morning, demonstrators headed to Abascal's former home in the upmarket Retiro district around three kilometers away.
Protests over home shortages and surging rents following her eviction prompted Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call a snap general election for November 29 after parliament rejected his government's proposals to address a mounting housing crisis.
"Maricarmen will be an icon of struggle. She has made us wake up and say 'enough'. We cannot put up with this situation any longer," Rosa Marin, a 48-year-old teacher, told AFP.
Abascal, who used a wheelchair, died in hospital two weeks after her eviction from the apartment where she had lived for 70 years.
Taken away on a stretcher after the real estate company that owned the flat drastically hiked the rent, she became the face of Spain's long-running housing crisis and the catalyst for nationwide protests.
Maricarmen "was the last straw, she was able to cause all this", said photography teacher Anton Alexander, referring to the camps and demonstrations that have placed housing at the heart of the November 29 election.
People of all ages joined the march, chanting slogans such as "they aren't deaths, they are murders". A provisional estimate by the central government's delegation in the Madrid region put their number at 20,000.
Outside Maricarmen's former residence in Retiro, next to the popular UNESCO-listed park of the same name, the mourners applauded and left more flowers and candles before observing a silence.
A deal had been reached with the real estate firm allowing Abascal to return home at a lower rent, but she ultimately spent her final days in hospital.
Attempting to respond to the popular pressure, the left-wing government hastily agreed two decrees last week that included greater protections against evictions for vulnerable tenants and the automatic renewal of contracts.
But the conservative and far-right opposition voted down the minority coalition's measures in parliament, prompting Sanchez to call the early vote on Monday.
Whether Sanchez, who is trailing in most polls, can capitalize on the anger remains to be seen.
"We have a political class that is the most inept since the start of democracy," said 67-year-old retiree Manuel Martin, who joined the tribute to Abascal on Thursday evening.
"Housing is a structural issue that no party can solve alone. This is a national problem," he added.
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