[Anchor]

Protests protesting the housing crisis are continuing day after day in Spain. Amid this situation, an elderly woman in her 80s, who sparked the current protests after being evicted from the home where she had lived for 70 years due to skyrocketing rent, has ultimately passed away.

Reporting from Paris, this is Kwon Yeongin.

[Reporter]

Thousands of citizens filled the streets of Madrid, the capital of Spain.

They gathered to mourn the death of Maria del Carmen Abascal, a symbol of Spain's housing crisis protests.

[This is not a simple death. It is murder against workers.]

Abascal, 87 years old this year, was forcibly evicted two weeks ago from the home where she had lived for 70 years.

An investment firm that bought the apartment raised the rent by 230 percent all at once, and when footage of the grandmother being carried out on a stretcher while resisting was made public, all of Spain boiled over with anger.

[Beatriz Duro / Spanish Citizen: I simply could not understand it. I think all the means mobilized by the police and the physical force exercised were excessively heavy-handed and unnecessary.]

Spanish citizens suffering from soaring rents following the COVID-19 pandemic continued protests day after day, and the plaza in front of Madrid City Hall filled with tent protests demanding a solution to the housing crisis.

As public opinion worsened, the investment firm withdrew the forced eviction measure and allowed the grandmother to return to the home where she lived.

[Abascal: I earnestly ask all of you to muster the courage to fight back and defend your legitimate rights. And please take care not to get hurt.]

The political arena was also shaken.

The ruling party attempted to pass bills such as preventing the forced eviction of tenants until new housing is provided, but it fell through due to opposition from the conservative faction.

Then, Prime Minister Sanchez threw down a political gamble by dissolving parliament and moving up the general election, which had been scheduled for next summer, to next month.

The investment firm also gave up the rent increase and decided to sign a new eight-year contract as before.

However, Abascal, weakened by the shock of the forced eviction, was unable to sign the new contract and passed away on the 7th, local time, at the hospital where she was hospitalized.

[Diana / Memorial Rally Participant: (Abascal) was someone who just looking at her made you feel good, but as soon as she was kicked out of that house, she had to be hospitalized, and today she finally passed away.]

Tenant organizations plan to continue their protests even after Abascal's funeral until measures to solve the housing crisis for ordinary people are established.

(Video取材: Kim Si-nae | Video Editing: Park Choon-bae)