Unemployment, police presence, and a new police station: security at the forefront of Girona's current affairs

GironaGirona City Council is cracking down on squatters. This week, after days of surveillance and a permanent police presence in the area, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and the Municipal Police carried out an operation to evict the squatted building on Tomàs Mieres Street, next to the train tracks. A troubled building where, since before the summer, around thirty squatters had been living with their electricity tapped, causing much unrest among the residents, with recurring complaints of fights, dirt, and noise until late into the night.

Early Monday morning, vans and patrol cars cordoned off the area, while officers cleared the building and identified those present under the watchful eyes of neighbors and onlookers. Only one person was arrested, not for resisting arrest, but because he had an outstanding court order. Municipal workers then blocked the entrances with bricks and iron sheets, awaiting the immediate demolition of the building, which suffers from serious structural deficiencies and poses an imminent risk. "The work was carried out urgently after the technical architects' report certified that the structure is in very poor condition and poses a danger to the people who lived there. We have agreed with the owners that it will likely be demolished next week," explains Sílvia Aliu, Councilor for Security. All those affected can apply to Social Services if they meet the requirements, and the police will monitor all the problematic profiles who have left the blog.

The neighbors are celebrating their decision after a summer marked by disturbances and unpleasant clashes with the squatters. "In the communal courtyard, they threw garbage, mattresses, old furniture, and waste, and urinated from the window. And, in August, there were fights and arguments every night," says a neighbor from the adjacent block. However, the trigger that further inflamed the neighbors' tempers was the report of rape of a minor in mid-September in this area, where there is also a another occupied block, on Ronda Ferran Puig, The City Council also wants to demolish it soon. The incident occurred a year ago, before the current squatters moved in, but the complaint coincided with the widespread dissemination of a gruesome audio recording through WhatsApp groups warning of the neighborhood's supposed danger.

Demolition of six abandoned and occupied warehouses on the Barcelona highway

The building on Tomàs Mieres Street isn't the only squatted block that the City Council has vacated in recent days. Last week, the council began demolishing the six abandoned warehouses at the southern end of the Barcelona highway, also at imminent risk of collapse. The work will cost more than €400,000 (temporarily borne by the council, which will recover the money when an investor develops the site) and will last approximately four months. The warehouses, which occupy more than 5,000 m², were in a very degraded state, with accumulated waste and the presence of homeless people, some of whom had started fights and set fires. Before beginning the demolition, the Municipal Police evicted the residents, while Social Services attempted to find alternatives for the most vulnerable cases. "The warehouses are private property, but the City Council has taken responsibility for their condition because we are concerned about the well-being of the neighborhood and the improvement of the urban environment. We are promoting their demolition as part of the plan to convert the Barcelona highway into an avenue," emphasizes Mayor Lluc Salellas.

Open doors at the new Santa Eugenia police station

A week earlier, in the western area, the Girona City Council inaugurated the new shared police station at Can Burrassó, in the Santa Eugenia neighborhood, which will also serve Sant Narcís and Can Gibert del Pla, the most populated areas of the city. The facility, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, features a complaints office shared by the Municipal Police and the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), and will also be staffed by Civil Protection volunteers. The municipal government, which organized an open house at the facility, emphasized that the space will improve residents' sense of security, improve coexistence, and improve conflict management, in addition to coordinating efforts with social services, educators, and community outreach.

Establishment of criminal gangs leaving Barcelona

In this context, although there has not been any alarming increase in crime, the Mossos d'Esquadra of Girona recognize that there is "a problem" with the establishment in the Girona demarcation of criminal gangs linked primarily to marijuana production but also to associated crimes, such as arms or people trafficking. The force warns that the geographical location of the region – close to France, with a lot of tourism and good communication routes – facilitates the establishment of these groups, who see the area as a strategic enclave to operate discreetly. Likewise, the Department of the Interior notes that the tightening of the Controls against repeat thieves in Barcelona is causing these criminals to move to other cities such as Girona.

Together calls for more control over the registry

All of this has brought the issue of security to the forefront of political news. The most vocal has been Deputy Mayor Gemma Geis, of Junts, who recently pushed for a change in the management of the municipal register so that it would be directly under the City Council's secretariat, with the aim of combating "fraud and irregular registration schemes." Junts also makes support for the 2026 budget conditional on increased funding for security. Ganamos, for the time being, has expressed its support for the measures, although it insists on the need to separate "immigration and crime" at all costs. The opposition PSC, for its part, is calling for a greater police presence in the city, criticizing Junts' harsher tone, and emphasizing the role of the Generalitat (Catalan government) in improving security management in the city.