Protests in Spain after 87-year-old was evicted from her home

Maria del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction from her longtime Madrid home sparked nationwide protests across Spain

and unleashed a political crisis, has died while in hospital.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences in a post on X.

Protesters headed for Spain's parliament in Madrid gathering outside and raising their hands in solidarity after 87-year-old Maria del Carmen Abascal had been

evicted from her longtime home and then died while hospitalised.

Police officers stood guard by candles and flowers left on the sidewalk for Maricarmen, as Maria del Carmen was also known.

Maricarmen had been hospitalised since she was carried out on a stretcher from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades.

Before her death and speaking from hospital Maricarmen had said, "I haven't been able to defend my home, but I have fought so that others learn to fight. My home has been my life

and now I have to leave it behind."

Her case has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in outrage and led the prime minister to call for early elections after failing to pass measures to address

the country'shousing crisis.

This 32-year-old protester said, "A lot of sorrow. I think that's what we all share. A great deal of sorrow. And above all, the thought that she is the cause,

the head of this whole revolution that has happened, and that she can't see it. It makes me very sad that she can't see if anything comes of it."

Protesters who have been camping out in Madrid's iconic Sol square held a minute of silence after hearing the news of her passing.