Sumar and Podemos are stepping up pressure on Maricarmen in Madrid following the eviction of 87-year-old Pedro Sánchez: both parties are demanding the immediate adoption in the Council of Ministers of the housing decree with eviction protections, announced in July. The immediate trigger is footage from 23 September 2026, when a court enforcement officer accompanied by police had the elderly woman’s home in Calle Alcalde Sáinz de Baranda in the Madrid district of Retiro cleared. Supporters and neighbours tried to prevent the enforcement; Maricarmen was eventually given medical attention.
Representatives of Sumar and Podemos said that a decree with anti-eviction rules adopted in time would at least have made the case more difficult or prevented it. Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun and Social Minister Pablo Bustinduy described it as a political priority and called for the decree to be put on the agenda without further delay. Sumar also called for possible expropriation of the property to be considered, to allow the 87-year-old woman to remain there. The Socialist Party, which heads the Housing Ministry, is now at the centre of the debate over the draft’s timing and content.
For background to the case, media report a long-term rental contract dating from the 1950s, known in Spain as “renta antigua”. Following changes of ownership, the property passed to an investment fund. According to reports, there were substantial rent increases, legal disputes and, ultimately, enforcement scheduled for 23 September. Several local mediation attempts and offers of assistance came to nothing. Official information about the elderly woman’s future accommodation was initially unavailable.
The dispute also stems from the failure over the summer to extend protection clauses for vulnerable households. Sumar and Podemos blame the right-wing opposition and other parliamentary groups; the other side cites legal constraints and calls for certainty for property owners. Regardless of the party-political dispute, the government is under pressure to provide clarity quickly: the criteria for postponements, alternative accommodation or cases of exceptional hardship have yet to be determined.
The specific provisions the decree will contain have not yet been published. Temporary rules halting evictions of particularly vulnerable people, improved mediation before enforcement hearings and requirements for alternative accommodation are expected. It is unclear whether, or how quickly, a parliamentary majority can be found for them. One thing is clear: the Maricarmen case shaped the housing policy agenda in Madrid that day.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).