Police use teargas on protesters as disabled woman, 87, evicted from Madrid home

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Protests erupted in Madrid as riot police used teargas to evict an 87-year-old disabled woman from her home in the El Retiro district. The eviction, opposed by housing rights activists and celebrities, sparked violent clashes highlighting tensions over housing and tenant rights in Spain.

Housing rights campaigners decry landlord’s ‘barbaric behaviour’ after apartment Maricarmen had lived in for 71 years was bought by a developer There were violent scenes in Madrid on Wednesday as riot police fought with protesters trying to prevent the eviction of a disabled 87-year-old woman from her apartment in the El Retiro district of the city. Hundreds of protesters had gathered, many of them overnight, in an effort to block the fourth attempt to carry out the eviction. Activists from the Madrid and Barcelona tenants’ union, and celebrities including the actor Carlos Bardem and the singer and actor Ana Belén, also joined the protest. Continue reading...