Farewell to the mayor who confronted squatters with an axe

BarcelonaThe mayor of Badalona, ​​​​Xavier Garcia Albiol, is dedicating his term to going to occupied properties and not leaving until the tenants are evicted. He will never be able to surpass the mayor of Caldes de Malavella, Salvador Balliu (1964), who confronted some squatters who had settled on his property with an axe, fortunately without any bloodshed. The Junts mayor faced a €2,250 fine for minor coercion, but the courts acquitted him a year ago.

Those events, which occurred in 2022, marked the end of a long political career that closed on Friday in an extraordinary plenary session in which he handed over the mayor's office. Balliu is leaving politics after 26 years (14 consecutive as mayor) to close a chapter. And he got into it for logistical reasons, not out of vocation: "Both my wife and I were working, and they closed the only daycare center in town. I got into politics to reopen it because we had nowhere to leave our child. Then I liked it so much that I continued."

He admits that the incident with the squatters that catapulted him to popularity "affected him emotionally" because the opposition was demanding his leader, but he reiterates that he was "the one affected and threatened." Be that as it may, it was the trigger for pushing for a major investment in security by installing new video surveillance cameras and increasing the local police force: "We only have twelve occupied houses in a town with many housing developments and 9,000 inhabitants," he boasts, contrasting it with neighboring municipalities where there are more than 180. "All my life," and as an example, they explain that until Friday, every day he would leave home half an hour before entering the Town Hall to speak with the neighbors. "And what will we do without you now?" some people ask him. He won't be short of work. The owner of a taxi and minibus company, he will now dedicate all his efforts to it. He will also take advantage of the more free time he has to watch his son Ivan's matches, a Rayo Vallecano player and international for Albania, where he is an idol, after discovering they have Albanian roots. "It's much better for him to be a footballer than a politician, because in politics, sacrifice isn't always synonymous with things going your way," he concludes.