France

Paris, October 8, 2026. The French press is treating the death of Maricarmen Abascal as the culmination of a story that has become the face of a social crisis. The 87-year-old retiree died on Wednesday, October 7, after being evicted on September 23 on a stretcher from the apartment in the Retiro neighborhood she had occupied for nearly seventy years. Le Monde recalls that this housing had been rented by her father since 1956 under the old rent regime, and that after eight years of conflict with the owner company, an agreement offered her a new lease that she did not have time to sign.

The reports rely heavily on the statement from the Union of Tenants of Madrid: "We regret to announce that Maricarmen has died today," saluting a fight that had marked "a turning point in the history of this country." The union also judged that "this solution came too late" and that "the price paid" to put housing at the center of the debate was "too high." BFMTV specifies that the rent had been increased by 275%, to 2,650 euros per month, and that the last appeal to the Supreme Court had failed.

The image of the street takes center stage. Sud Ouest and HuffPost describe hundreds of protesters near Parliament chanting "Maricarmen lives, the fight continues," who came from the Puerta del Sol where they have been camping for ten days, with candles and a minute of silence. Le Monde also cites tougher slogans, including "This is not a death, it's a murder," and notes that the protesters are blaming both the socialist government and the People's Party, which runs the city and region of Madrid.

The political dimension is reported with sobriety. France 24 and 20 Minutes, which reprints the AFP, recall that the minority left-wing government had presented emergency measures, including a tightening of eviction conditions and the tacit renewal of leases. Their rejection in Parliament the previous week led Pedro Sánchez to call for early elections on November 29.

The economic context serves as an explanation more than a subject. BFMTV indicates that the average price per square meter for rent has almost doubled in ten years, to 15.1 euros in August according to Idealista, and that tourist rentals like Airbnb and "vulture funds" are accused of driving up prices. The case of an octogenarian, the channel estimates, "brutally illustrates" this crisis.