Tens of thousands march in Madrid to mourn pensioner whose eviction sparked housing protests

Tens of thousands of mourners marched through Madrid on Thursday in tribute to a Spanish pensioner whose eviction sparked national housing protests that culminated in the calling of early elections. The death of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal on Wednesday produced tears and anger in the Spanish capital's emblematic Puerta del Sol square, the epicentre of the movement where hundreds are camping in protest. From Sol, where an improvised shrine of candles, flowers and placards lay on Thursday morning, demonstrators headed to Abascal's former home in the upmarket Retiro district around three kilometres (two miles) away. "Maricarmen will be an icon of struggle. She has made us wake up and say 'enough'. We cannot put up with this situation any longer," Rosa Marin, a 48-year-old teacher, told AFP. Abascal, who used a wheelchair, died in hospital two weeks after her eviction from the apartment where she had lived for 70 years. Read moreEvicted pensioner Maricarmen Abascal, heart of Spain's housing protests, dies Taken away on a stretcher after the real estate company that owned the flat drastically hiked the rent, she became the face of Spain's long-running housing crisis and the catalyst ...