Albiol, the arsonist
Which We are living these days in Badalona.It is a reflection and consequence of the xenophobic rhetoric of the far right, which, in order to respond to people's discontent, seeks easy scapegoats in the weakest link of society: the most recent arrivals. The city's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, of the PP, He has behaved like an ultra-conservative, incendiary leader, blatantly linking immigration with insecurity and promoting and turning into a propaganda spectacle the eviction of a former educational institute occupied by people with nowhere to sleep.
In the latest chapter of this shameful situation, while, on the one hand, Albiol was negotiating with the Catalan Government and social organizations with the sole objective—on his part—of getting rid of all those evicted from the former B9 educational center by any means necessary, on the other hand, he himself was encouraging the neighbors to prevent it. "Give me some leeway to try to resolve it, and if not, do what you think is best," Albiol told a group of citizens determined to boycott the entry of some of the evicted people into a parish hall, warning them to hold their tongues, just in case: "Everything will be recorded, and if nothing happens afterward..." "It would be a burden." In other words, instead of calling for calm and condemning the calls for violence, he only recommended prudent discretion.
In recent months, despite Badalona's municipal surplus, Albiol has been closing social services resources intended for the humanitarian assistance of the most marginalized groups with the aim of getting rid of them. It's not that he lacks the capacity to take them in: it's that he has done everything possible to avoid having to do so. Catalonia's fourth largest city is thus washing its hands of a global problem and simply proposing that homeless people be sent to other towns. If everyone acted the same way, the only result would be to encourage a witch hunt across the country.
Albiol's attitude is clearly irresponsible. It's one thing to call for an immigration policy with more controls and more support from higher levels of government, and quite another to turn a blind eye to people who are among We, and who, beyond their legal status, have the right to dignified, humane treatment. Above all, they are people. It cannot be that an important administration like the Badalona City Council does nothing and that its mayor, moreover, encourages residents to boycott the joint action of the Catalan Government and the social organizations involved, most of which are linked to the Church.
Poisoning social harmony is very easy, and yet it's the last thing an elected representative of a public institution should do. The blame for insecurity and the housing crisis cannot be placed entirely on migrants who haven't been able to legalize their status, most of whom risked their lives to get here. They come because they know there's work, often undeclared or poorly paid, work that locals don't want to do. The problem, therefore, is structural. And the solution can in no way be the Albiol formula: abstaining from providing humanitarian solutions, finding a scapegoat, and inflaming social harmony. It's a formula that leads to disaster.
