Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'Albiol has an absolute majority in Badalona for the eviction'

Some of the 400 people evicted yesterday in Badalona They spent the night on the street.

They were evicted without any preparations in place—neither by the Badalona City Council, nor the Catalan government, nor the Spanish government. The failure, therefore, is collective, because you can evict a settlement, but the people don't disappear; the only thing that happens to the problem is that it shifts.

The Catalan government and the Spanish government are tiptoeing around the issue, as if it weren't their problem; meanwhile, the mayor of Badalona, ​​Xavier García Albiol, has been boasting about the eviction and about not having put a single euro in to help those evicted, saying that these people were causing "serious problems of coexistence and security".

"I want to make it very clear that the Badalona City Council will not spend a single euro providing housing for people who have made life impossible for the residents. We have raised the issue and made inquiries through various municipal services to see if there was a possibility of some people spending the night in boarding houses, spaces reserved for this type of person, to accommodate these individuals."

Albiol, who used "Cleaning Up Badalona" as his slogan in the 2015 municipal elections, governs Catalonia's third-largest city with an absolute majority. Many people who previously voted for the Socialist Party, or for the Comuns and Catalan separatists, now vote for him. And, as is typical when you win, everyone embraces you, so Albiol had normalized his political image, to the point of going out to support the National Pact for the LanguageAlbiol has exposed the left wing that had governed the city for so long. But now he's back where he started: he knows that the rhetoric that conflates immigration and crime wins votes, and since he's played this B9 case to the extreme, he's sure to reap electoral rewards, regardless of the fact that we're talking about human beings.

Also worth analyzing yesterday was Santos Cerdán's appearance before the Senate. He presented himself as the victim of a deep state conspiracy against him, in which manipulated evidence, specifically recordings, was allegedly used, all because he negotiated the amnesty with Puigdemont and was the first Socialist to publicly acknowledge his involvement.

"Everything changed after Puigdemont," Cerdán said.Everything must have changed. What's certain is that when Pedro Sánchez let him down, something irregular must have happened. But Cerdán insisted that after the negotiations in Brussels he had to be escorted, that people from other parties warned him: "Be careful." But the Vox senator who was questioning him, Ángel Pelayo, said yes, it all started with the amnesty negotiations: "It all stems from here. It's a colossal act of corruption, Mr. Cerdán."

It doesn't stem from that, exactly. They just deemed it illegitimate that Sánchez gathered the votes that Feijóo couldn't muster. And therefore, it comes from further back. They just lost power. For the PP, for Vox, power is above the unity of Spain. Because, in their worldview, one guarantees the other. Even if this undermines the credibility of the judiciary.

Whatever the case, Sánchez is the biggest loser in this PSOE crisis. We've been telling him this: he was in freefall, acting desperately. Want a slight indication, like that first gust of wind around a corner that makes you realize winter is here? Take a look at this article from El País: "To imagine a PSOE without Pedro Sánchez"The idea is that perhaps a replacement for Sánchez should be considered because what's good for him (holding on) could be bad for the Socialist candidates, as they will fare poorly in the regional and municipal elections. This article wasn't written by just anyone: it was signed by one of the newspaper's deputy editors.

Good morning.