Video taking off 23x its usual first day

Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction stirred Spain, has died

Sarah Morris reports from Madrid for FRANCE 24 English on a death that turned a single eviction into a national story about housing.

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FRANCE 24 English Story of October 8, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 180,644 views a day, 23 times a normal first day on this channel (7,832).

Evicted pensioner who sparked Spain housing protests dies: tenant union • FRANCE 24 English

"Evicted pensioner who sparked Spain housing protests dies: tenant union" is a short report from FRANCE 24 English. Madrid's tenants' union announced on Wednesday that Maricarmen Abascal had died. She was 87.

Her eviction had already become far more than one household's loss. In the weeks before her death, it set off protests across Spain, including activists camping on one of Madrid's main squares, and it renewed calls to deal with a housing crisis that has been building for years. Sarah Morris reports from the Spanish capital.

The Short reached about 87,000 views in its first eight hours. A Short on this channel usually ends its whole first day with a small fraction of that. The same day brought reports on the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks, a suspected plague case in Siberia and France suspending stun grenades at student protests. Each of them is still counting its views in the thousands.

The comments came in by the hundreds. Most of them are messages of condolence, and many reflect on what it means to lose a home so late in life. Others turn to the wider question the protests raised, of who should be allowed to buy homes and how tenants are protected.

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