Moià celebrates the referendum that the ERC town council did not want

Barcelona"Do you agree that the Moià Town Council should promote the urban planning modification of the land in the Castellnou area for the expansion of the slaughterhouse and the construction of the biogas plant?" This is the question that residents over the age of 16 in this municipality in the Moianès region must answer this Sunday in a non-binding referendum. Getting to this point has not been easy. The Town Council, governed by Ara Moià—a party linked to the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia)—has put up every possible obstacle to prevent the vote from taking place. The council believes that accepting these projects is the only way to regularize the industrial park and, therefore, save the companies currently located there, but environmentalists and the opposition disagree and believe there are other options.

The last obstacle the municipal government had put up was setting up only one polling station, even though 5,522 people were eligible to vote. Finally, late Friday, at the request of the referendum's organizing committee, they agreed to set up two more at the Espai Cultural Les Faixes, where the voting was taking place. The day before, the City Council had prohibited the street parade that the referendum organizers wanted to hold on Saturday to encourage participation. The executive branch argued that it was the day of reflection, but the referendum law stipulates that campaigning is permitted until midnight on the day of the referendum, and the organizers went ahead with it anyway.

Now, Moià, which did not include the slaughterhouse expansion in its platform, has never looked favorably upon the referendum as proposed by the opposition. In May, the municipal government already refused to even consider the referendum promoted by a coordinating group amidst protests from more than 200 residents in the Plaça del Ajuntament (Town Hall Square). ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) put forward its own referendum, simply asking residents if they agreed with the regularization of the industrial park, where various businesses, including the slaughterhouse, are located, and if they agreed with the installation of the plant, without mentioning the slaughterhouse expansion at all. Finally, the executive accepted the referendum after the Generalitat (Catalan Government) issued two resolutions urging the City Council to accept the vote, considering that it had no justifiable reasons for not doing so. It also ended up accepting the question as it is currently formulated. In any case, Mayor Dionís Guiteras warns that it is not binding and that the final decision rests with the government: "I will act responsibly and I will not leave as the mayor who closed it, even though it has indebted the City Council with the compensation that will have to be paid to the companies, and if this means the end of my career."

Campaign in the middle of the Christmas holidays

"From the start of the campaign against the projects, the mayor refused to respond to the more than 1,800 signatures collected from registered residents of Moià. This led to the proposal of a citizen-initiated referendum, which the City Council repeatedly obstructed until it had no choice but to accept it," the coordinator of Por un Moià Vive (For a Living Moià) told ARA. The fact that it was an obstacle course is demonstrated by the fact that the City Council did not provide the census until July 17, even though the referendum was officially accepted on June 4. "We had two months to collect the signatures, but it took them a month and a half to give us the census. Luckily, we had already made progress because we only had fifteen days left," emphasizes Jaume Sisè, spokesperson for the referendum's organizing committee, who points out that they obtained 902 signatures when they needed 552.

The platform "For a Living Moià" also reports that "the governing team has extended the deadlines established by the consultation law, presumably to try to approve the project before" the vote. In fact, the council validated the initial approval of the slaughterhouse expansion project in June, but it was declared null and void because it failed to consider the environmental impact assessment that the Generalitat (Catalan government) always requires. What they have done is shorten the consultation period. Thus, those opposed to the projects do not hide their displeasure that the council approved the consultation on December 12 and scheduled the vote for January 11: "The entire campaign has taken place during the Christmas holidays with fewer resources available and greater difficulties in reaching people."

The Platform also criticizes the City Council for failing to campaign to encourage voting, despite being obligated to do so, and for providing minimal publicity for the referendum. They assert that the informational posters were poorly visible and that a map of the population area included in the census was not provided, forcing residents to go to the City Hall in person to verify their eligibility to vote. "It is very disappointing that a democratic party like Ara Moià campaigned to prevent the population from democratically expressing their vision for the future of Moià, showing contempt for the citizens who have been working for two years to ensure the town's right to decide," the platform concludes.