According to Al Jazeera, Maria del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, died in a Madrid hospital at 87, Madrid's tenants' union said on Wednesday. After an international investment fund bought her building and raised her rent by more than 200 percent, to roughly $1,880 a month, she was evicted on September 23. She had lived in the flat for seven decades and was carried out on a stretcher and hospitalised.

After the eviction, the Madrid Tenants' Union organised protests and encampments in Puerta del Sol, the capital's central square. They drew tens of thousands of people and spread to dozens of other cities. Sanchez offered condolences to her family on X.

The government failed last week to pass emergency housing measures, including an anti-eviction decree, in parliament, and Sanchez responded by calling an early vote. The next general election had been due by August 2027. Al Jazeera and other outlets reported that rents and evictions will be central campaign issues.

Unions have moved too. The UGT and CCOO, Spain's two largest, announced a nationwide housing general strike for November 11. The date still needs ratification by other unions, but it would be the first general strike jointly backed by the two in 14 years. A tenants' union spokesperson said most wages go to housing, which is rising far faster than the minimum wage.

The numbers are stark. The Bank of Spain estimates a deficit of about 750,000 homes, which could exceed one million by 2028, and Youth Council of Spain figures put the average rent of 1,176 euros at 98.7 percent of a young person's average monthly salary.

Polls consistently put Sanchez, 54, who has led the government since 2018, behind Alberto Nunez Feijoo of the conservative Popular Party. Feijoo is not expected to win an outright majority and would likely need the far-right Vox party to govern.