Evicted Spanish octogenarian Maricarmen Abascal, heart of Spain’s housing protests, has died

MADRID, Oct 7 (Reuters) Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked housing protests in Spain, has died, Madrid s tenants union said on Wednesday. Since her ​eviction last month, a series of protests have ‌included activists camping on one of Madrid s main squares and calls for action over a mounting housing crisis. Trade unions on Wednesday announced there will be a nationwide general strike over housing issues ‌on ​November 11. Those protests, along with parliament s rejection ⁠last week of decrees ⁠aimed at curbing evictions and limiting rent pressures, prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call an early election for November 29. Sanchez is seeking to shift the political ​narrative from his government s handling of a migrant crisis in Spain s North African enclave of Ceuta and ⁠a series of corruption cases involving ⁠his Socialist Party and his family to ​the housing crisis, an area in which he can harness ​growing resentment about rising rents. Now, foll