The Council of Ministers of Spain meets today with the aim of approving a decree that protects tenants from evictions and uncontrolled increases in income, pressed by protests that have led thousands of people to the streets.
© Lusa
29/09/2026
by
Lusa
The protests due to the housing crisis and the growing difficulty in accessing a house have taken place last week in several cities of Spain, with a special dimension in Madrid, after the eviction by the 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal police of the apartment in the centre of the Spanish capital in which it has lived since 1956.
Under the motto “not a Maricarmen more”, 300,000 people, according to the Association Union of Tenants and Tenants of Madrid, and 25,000, according to the authorities, manifested themselves on Saturday in the streets of the city and hundreds have been camped since that day in the square Porta do Sol, where they installed close to 400 tents.
The case of Maricarmen Abascal and the size of the protests even relegated the Ceuta crisis to the background in the Spanish media.
The Union of Inquiries and Inquiries requires the Government to approve today, by the Council of Ministers, a “Maricarmen decree”, which prevents evictions from vulnerable tenants such as Maricarmen Abascal, elderly and without an alternative accommodation.
Among other claims, the association also requires automatic renewal of lease contracts, without random increases in rent, when tenants are complying with payment obligations.
If the “Decree Maricarmen” does not leave the Council of Ministers today, the camp in the historic and touristic heart of Madrid will continue, to time indefinite, as well as other types of protests, has already secured the Union of Inquiries and Inquiries.
The Spanish Government, led by the Socialist Party (PSOE), has repeatedly promised legislation to increase the protection of eviction tenants, as well as other measures to try to limit the rise in rents and increase access to housing.
The executive has justified the need to negotiate with eight parties in parliament to guarantee the approval of this legislation so as not to have advanced the measures until now.
In the face of the pressure on the streets and direct appeals from Maricarmen Abascal himself, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, revealed on Sunday that the Government and the PSOE are “working in counterclockwise” to bring to the Council of Ministers today a decree with various measures for housing.
“ And I ask the parliamentary groups for one last effort to be approved in parliament,” said Sánchez.
In Spain, for a government decree to remain in force it must be ratified by Parliament within 30 days.
Several parties, left and right, which are part of the contraption that made possible the current legislature confirmed the negotiations on Monday, but they said there was no agreement yet guaranteed.
The lack of agreement begins within the executive itself, a PSOE coalition with the Somar left platform.
“We don’t want half paints,” Health Minister Mónica García of Somar said on Monday, reiterating that the five ministers of the platform (integrated by several parties to the left of the PSOE) will refuse to approve a decree that is not “brave and ambitious”, with “measures that put an end to cases such as Maricarmen’s” and that do not include “what the Union of Inquilinas claims”.
According to official data, this year an average of 44 daily evictions have occurred in Spain.
In 10 years, the average price of the square metre in the lease in the country almost doubled, reaching 15,1 euros/m2 in August, according to the Idealist real estate portal.