Neither Palestinian nor LGBTI, but Spanish: the flag war in Vallbona d'Anoia reaches the courts

BarcelonaThe mayor of Vallbona de Anoia, Meritxell Baqué, from CUP, testified on Monday in preliminary proceedings in the Igualada court for not having the Spanish flag on the façade of the Town Hall, where the Palestinian flag and ensign now fly, which they put up following the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Curiously, the complaint was not filed by any Spanish entity or neighbour, but by the father of the head of the Junts list, Pere Masagué. The municipal group of the junteros, without citing the author of the complaint, has stated that "no complaint can override the will of the plenary session".

Investigated for prevarication, Baqué, who invoked the right not to testify, hopes that the judicial procedure will be archived while revealing that the complaint has not taken her by surprise. In the first mandate of the CUP in 2019, the father of the head of the Junts list already presented an application demanding that the LGBTI flag be removed on June 28, arguing, according to the mayor, that "it did not represent everyone." She was surprised that she is now demanding that the Spanish flag be raised when "it has never been hung, and we have only been in power for six years."

The The complainant claims that the complaint is to have the Palestinian flag hanging: "I don't care if the Spanish flag is there or not, but Vallbona is not Palestine and that flag has no place." But in the complaint, to which the ARA has had access, he explicitly calls for the State flag to be used, citing the flag law: "By means of this document, they are required to immediately remove the Palestinian flag from the Town Hall and to fly the Spanish flag in its place, as is mandatory and appropriate." And he warns that if the change is not made, he will appeal to higher courts.

The spokesperson for Junts, Pere Masagué, regrets that the figure of his father is being used to question him in a strategy that he says is being repeated and that "does not contribute anything positive to the political debate." She also points out that her father took a different political path to hers in 2015, running as number 3 for an independent party that positioned itself against 1-O and that made a pact with the CUP in 2019. "It makes no sense that this relationship continues to be used to discredit me," she adds. After making it clear that when they made a pact with this party he was no longer on the list, the mayor refutes that the Junts leader tries to disassociate himself from her father, but that "when they have problems with his father, he does come to mediate."

Some works, behind the lawsuit?

Baqué links the complaint with the fact that the Barcelona Provincial Court in November dismissed a complaint for malfeasance of duty filed by the complainant himself against the council. The dispute arose as a result of the City Council cancelling a minor works licence. The complainant, who already has a history of urban planning irregularities, had used the licence initially granted for minor works for the almost total modification of a building. "Two plus two makes four, every time he wants to carry out works he doesn't ask for permits and I suppose that before he was allowed, and as now he is no longer allowed, he is angry and is trying to get us down," says the mayor, who reveals that the proceedings against him are still open because he disobeyed the suspension of the works and already has people living there.