Italy

Rome, October 8, 2026. The Italian press announced on October 7 the death of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, at the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid, where she had been hospitalized since her expulsion on September 23. ANSA presents her as "the face of the battle for the right to housing in Spain" and recalls that she had been living in the apartment in the Retiro neighborhood, rented by her father in 1956, for 71 years. Alone, with a recognized disability of 50%, she paid 500 euros per month.

The Italian account emphasizes the images. According to ANSA, she was carried out on a stretcher, live on television, amidst a massive deployment of riot police who had to push through a crowd of hundreds of people determined to prevent the eviction. These images "have gone around the world". Adnkronos specifies that the Madrid protest, later extended to the entire country, was born from a video relayed by the Daily Mail showing the police bursting into the apartment, whose door she had barricaded with furniture.

Regarding the cause, ANSA indicates that the building was bought by the company Urbangestion and that the rent was multiplied by five in 2020, up to 2,650 euros per month, out of her reach. Libero adds that she had led a seven-year judicial battle against the eviction.

The Tenants' Union, which announced her death, is quoted by the three agencies and newspapers: a "historic agreement" would have allowed her to return home, but this solution "came too late". It describes the eviction as a "situation that was absolutely avoidable, after a process of torture". Adnkronos reprints the statement, co-signed by her family and her lawyer, according to which mass demonstrations, camping on the squares, early elections, and a call for a general strike are "a turning point in the history of this country", at "a much too high price".

The political dimension is only sketched. La Repubblica, through the pen of its correspondent Benedetta Perilli, quotes the condolences of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, "We feel her loss as our own", and states that the pressures of the movement have "activated the government crisis". Her motto, "Lottate, continuate a lottare per ciò che è vostro", is taken up by ANSA, Adnkronos, and Libero as an epitaph, and ANSA sees it as the inspiration for tens of thousands of "indignados" throughout Spain.