Police broke down 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal's door on Wednesday, and medics carried her out on a stretcher from the Madrid apartment where she'd lived for more than 70 years. The investment fund Urbagestión bought the building in 2018. It raised her rent from €500 to €2,650 a month, then cut it to €1,650. Her pension couldn't cover it. Spain's Supreme Court ruled against her in March. On Friday, the fund offered the city a plan to return her to the flat. Her representatives and the fund meet Monday, with the city's housing company mediating. On Saturday, police counted 25,000 marchers for her, and organizers claimed 300,000. Protesters then camped through Sunday in the Puerta del Sol, Madrid's central square. Sánchez's government says it is racing to bring a housing decree to the cabinet Tuesday. His coalition lacks a majority in parliament, so parties are fighting over the decree's terms.

1. The Tenants' Union and Sumar: Make Leases Permanent and Go After the Funds

The camp says it isn't leaving until the decree gives renters open-ended leases. Sánchez's junior coalition partner wants the decree to target investment funds.

The tenants want open-ended leases. The Tenants' Union organized Saturday's march. On Sunday its spokesperson, Alicia del Río, laid out the camp's demand: "So that there's never another Maricarmen: indefinite contracts, indefinite contracts and indefinite contracts." The union wants leases to renew automatically. It says the camp will stay until the government approves what protesters call the "Maricarmen decree." It's also weighing camps in other cities.

They're aiming at Sánchez's own party. "This camp is asking Pedro Sánchez what problem his party has with people having stable lives," del Río said.

The deputy prime minister told them to push harder. Yolanda Díaz, Spain's second deputy prime minister and labor minister from the left-wing Sumar alliance, spoke at the Communist Party's festival outside Madrid on Sunday. "We want a royal decree that goes after the vulture funds," she said. She added that "people cannot be evicted without a housing guarantee." She had a message for the protesters in Sol: "Let them mobilize a lot, and more." On the talks with Junts, she said the government shouldn't weaken the decree to win over the right: "We don't want to please the right. Let the right show itself when it votes, and us by mobilizing."

Sumar's allies have their own list. Enrique Santiago is secretary general of the Communist Party, which is part of Sumar. He said the decree should pause evictions of vulnerable renters. He wants leases to renew automatically through at least the end of 2028, with rents frozen. He also wants limits on short-term and tourist rentals.

2. Sánchez's Government: The Decree Is Coming Tuesday, and the Opposition Blocked the Last One

The prime minister answered Abascal by name. His ministers say the parties that voted down earlier protections share the blame.

The prime minister answered her directly. In a video from the hospital on Friday, Abascal told supporters: "I did not manage to defend my home, but I have fought so that others learn to fight for theirs." Then: "Please fight." In a second video on Saturday, she asked Sánchez to have the cabinet approve a housing decree on Tuesday. Sánchez replied Sunday at a Socialist Party event in Getafe, outside Madrid: "Maricarmen, I have a message for you. The government is working against the clock to bring the Royal Decree-Law on Housing next Tuesday." He asked the other parties for "one last effort" and called it "a question of humanity." Speaking at the UN in New York on Wednesday, he'd called the eviction "a social tragedy that we cannot accept." He also accused Madrid's conservative regional government of chasing luxury penthouses while ignoring demand for social housing.

His ministers say the opposition had its chance. Ángel Víctor Torres is the minister of territorial policy and democratic memory. On Thursday he said three parties voted against an earlier anti-eviction decree: the conservative Popular Party (PP), the far-right Vox and the Catalan party Junts. "They are responsible for Maricarmen being evicted yesterday," he said on La Radio Canaria.

The government has a compromise on the table. For renters of private landlords, it would pause evictions of vulnerable families until they have somewhere to go. The government, not the landlord, would pay the lost rent. Junts proposed that idea months ago.

3. Junts: Stop the Funds, but Leave Small Landlords Alone

Sánchez needs this Catalan party's votes. Its secretary general says it will vote no if the decree hits ordinary people who rent out a flat.

The swing party laid out its terms Sunday. Jordi Turull, secretary general of Junts, spoke at a Basque Nationalist Party rally in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He said the decree should stop the investment funds "because they have the social sensitivity of a steamroller." He also wants small owners to get legal security and incentives to put flats up for rent.

The party will vote no if small landlords get hit. "The government knows it. If they want to mix things up, they won't have our vote," Turull said. By "mixing," he means bundling other measures into the decree, as the government did with an earlier omnibus decree on pensions. Junts says that kind of package ends up hurting people who rent out a flat. He said "stopping the vulture funds is not at odds with protecting the small owner."

The national opposition says eight years of Socialist rule broke the housing market. Madrid's regional president says Sánchez's police carried out the eviction, and the city wants his government to clear the camp.

The opposition says one decree can't undo eight years. Juan Bravo, the PP's vice secretary for finance, housing and infrastructure, spoke in Seville on Sunday. Sánchez "can't expect to fix in four days what he has destroyed in eight years," Bravo said. His party says Sánchez has built only 500 of the 184,000 homes he promised. The PP wants more building. Its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has promised a million new homes.

Madrid's regional president says Sánchez's police carried out the eviction. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the PP president of the Madrid region, spoke on Thursday. She said "the National Police, which the government runs," carried out the eviction. As for the housing law, she said, "They've had eight years to change it."

The city wants the tents gone. On Sunday, Madrid's city government called the camp illegal. It told the central government's office in Madrid to restore normality in Sol "as soon as possible." "The Government Delegation can't look the other way or pin on another administration the problems its incapacity causes," the city said in a statement. Regional government officials said the Interior Ministry broke the law by leaving the city police to deal with the camp.

Where This Lands

The tenants in Sol want permanent leases and say they'll stay until they get them. Sumar wants the decree to go after investment funds and won't soften it for the right. Sánchez has told Abascal he's racing to bring a decree Tuesday, and blames the parties that voted down the last one. Junts will back a crackdown on funds but will vote no if the decree bundles in measures that hurt small landlords. The PP says Sánchez broke the housing market and that building more homes will fix it. Ayuso and Madrid's city hall say the eviction and the camp are the central government's problem. Her representatives and the fund meet Monday, with the city's housing company mediating, over whether she can go back. The cabinet meets Tuesday.

Sources