Tens of thousands of people marched through Madrid on Saturday to protest the eviction of an 87-year-old woman, turning her case into a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis.

María del Carmen “Maricarmen” Abascal was carried from her apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood on a stretcher on September 23. She had lived there for 71 years. Her father first rented the apartment in 1956, and she stayed on as tenant under a rent cap.

An investment fund that bought the unit raised her monthly rent from 500 euros to 2,650 euros. It later lowered it to 1,650 euros, which Abascal still could not afford on her pension, according to the Madrid Tenants’ Union. Courts had blocked three earlier eviction attempts.

“I haven’t managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others can learn to fight for what’s theirs,” Abascal said in a video recorded from her hospital bed after the eviction.

Many protesters refused to leave after Saturday’s march and camped overnight in Puerta del Sol plaza. They demand stronger tenant protections, anti-fraud rules and a ban on evictions when no alternative housing exists. Authorities put turnout at 25,000; organizers said 300,000.