Briefing
A public comment by the lawyer Víctor Soriano, who is assigned as an adviser to the office of Senator Eva Ortiz (Partido Popular), has caused considerable outrage following the eviction of an 87-year-old tenant in Madrid. In a sentence shared on social media, Soriano wrote: “Tener 87 años no te da derecho a vivir a costa de otros en una vivienda noble de un barrio burgués” (“Being 87 doesn’t give you the right to live at other people’s expense in a fine home in a bourgeois neighbourhood”); the post has already been documented by several media outlets and strongly criticised. The legal action was 23 September 2026 carried out. Many commentators regarded Soriano’s wording as insensitive and stigmatising towards older people in precarious housing situations.
The case concerned María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, who had lived for decades in a house in the district of Retiro According to media reports, the property in question belongs to Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión S.L.; the company enforced a court order for eviction after offers to negotiate and mediation attempts failed to reach an agreement. The eviction took place amid a considerable police operation Witness accounts and press photographs show that the woman was then carried out of the building on a stretcher and given medical attention.
Supporters, including the Sindicato de Inquilinas, had tried to block the operation outside the building; the protests prompted widespread public debate about the balance between property rights and tenant protection, the role of investment companies in existing tenancies, and the protection of vulnerable people. Political representatives from different camps condemned the harshness of the eviction or referred to the binding nature of court judgments. The critical response to Víctor Soriano’s tweet has now also galvanised parliamentary and civil society initiatives seeking to regulate or prevent the eviction of older people more rigorously. Whatever the debate, one fact remains established: the police eviction was carried out in Retiro on 23 September 2026.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).