Hate and dehumanization in Albiol's Badalona
During this year of 2025, which is about to end, few images in Catalonia have been more shocking than those seen Sunday night in Badalona, when a small group of residents forcibly prevented fifteen immigrants from the group evicted from the B9 high school from being rehoused in the parish of Our Lady of Montserrat. This is the extent of hatred and inhumanity displayed by some residents who have embraced the rhetoric fueled by the city's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, against a group of 200 people who now have to seek shelter under a bridge in freezing temperatures.
The mayor, with his sheriff-like style, intended to make a show of his hardline policy against crime, and what he has provoked is a humanitarian crisis. How can someone responsible for the city government and who belongs to a party that boasts of its Christian principles leave 200 people on the street without any housing alternative? Albiol is a specialist in playing with fire, and he has surely seen the global growth of the far right as legitimizing his rhetoric, but this time he has crossed all the lines and the crisis has spiraled out of control.
Badalona is today a city polarized by a mayor who uses Trumpian methods to deflect all attention from the most disadvantaged sectors of society, and where, if left unaddressed, personal tragedy could occur. On Sunday, stones were thrown at a church, and the mayor was forced to intervene to calm tempers that he himself had ignited. A textbook case of an arsonist firefighter.
It must be clear that the social and security problems that employment could pose cannot justify actions by the City Council devoid of the slightest humanity or respect for human rights, assuring everyone that "not a single euro" would be allocated to help these people, as Albiol has done. Above all, it must be clear that they are people, regardless of their immigration status, and that we live in a democracy. But having said that, institutions must respond to these situations and prevent them from becoming entrenched, and city councils often find themselves alone. It has already happened in other parts of Catalonia and Spain, such as Piera and Torrepacheco, that far-right groups have taken advantage of incidents to provoke disturbances. The difference in Badalona is that here, the one who has thrown gasoline on the fire has been the mayor himself, in an act of grave irresponsibility.
The Catalan government approved the Pla de Barris (Neighborhood Plan) last week with a budget of 230 million euros. What Albiol should do is present an ambitious program for the regeneration of the Sant Roc neighborhood and obtain the necessary funding. This is what a responsible mayor would do, beyond tweeting and TikToksAnd the Catalan government has lacked leadership in this crisis, as has the mobilization of the relevant departments. Social organizations have felt abandoned and left at the mercy of the anger of some residents who could use a dose of historical awareness.