Vic: the city that wanted to reach 80,000 inhabitants and that now already has enough with 50,000

Vic has exceeded the 50,000 inhabitant threshold for the first time. It has gained 20,000 in the last thirty years, representing an approximate increase of 66%, double the Catalan average in the same period. The omnipresent agri-food industry of the region, especially the meat sector, is a pole of attraction for foreign labor, which already accounts for 30% of the population, more than half of which is of African origin.

In this scenario, the mayor of Vic, Albert Castells, has issued a warning, calling the situation a "sociodemographic emergency." The 2010 POUM (Municipal Urban Planning Plan) is long gone, when the City Council boasted of wanting to reach 80,000 inhabitants under the mandate of Josep Maria Vila d'Abadal. Faced with an upward trend that does not stop, the councilor does not tire of repeating that "services have collapsed" and blames immigration. "We have many young people who will not be able to prosper and elderly people we cannot attend to because we have to focus on the massive arrival of uncontrolled people," he said in an interview with SER Catalunya that caused a great stir.

President Salvador Illa, who met with Castells after his appeal, did not mince words at an event before the top brass of the meat sector in Gurb two weeks ago. He appealed to their responsibility to contribute to social cohesion and move the country forward. "You cannot build an economy or a country where people, while working, cannot afford a roof over their heads," he stated, and called for offering the "same obligations and rights" to newcomers, referring to the regularization process that is underway.

The fact is that this growth has not been accompanied by an improvement in services and this feeling of overflow has been taken advantage of by the far-right, which caused Aliança Catalana (AC) to become the fourth force with 8.57% of the votes in the last Catalan elections. "The regional councilor for Welcome has said that Vic is not prepared to process 8,000 applications from irregular immigrants, but they are going ahead with it anyway. A rash decision made in haste that we, the people of Vic, will end up paying for," they denounce from the core of Aliança.

Although crimes have decreased by 7% this 2025, the Islamophobic party amplifies any incident to emphasize that these are not just "perceptions". "The current system is a sieve that brings crime and insecurity," they state from Aliança, and urge for a firm hand. "The people of Vic should not live in fear of being the next to suffer a robbery," they justify to demand zero tolerance. Josep Anglada has been making this same discourse for two decades, who landed at the City Council in 2003 with Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC) and who now remains as leader of Som Identitaris (SOMI).

"They used to call me racist and now the mayor says it and nothing happens"

"I've been saying for years that we don't all fit here and they called me racist, and now the mayor says it and nothing happens," says the xenophobic leader, who is in favor of expelling all those who are in an irregular situation "as established by the immigration law". Anglada doesn't mince words when pointing out that Junts is to blame for this growth: "It's the responsibility of the last 23 years of convergent governments and now they want to rectify a problem they created." In any case, he admits that there are the same services as thirty years ago.

The CUP, located at the other extreme, makes the same diagnosis. "It's a biased, reckless, racist, and classist discourse, because if you defend a growth model of 15,000 people, and on the other hand you don't open any new high school or health center, nor invest in housing, it makes no sense at all," denounces CUP member Carla Dinarès. "You approved the growth, what bothers you is that poor immigrants come," she adds after recalling that the government did not want to approve the construction of the fourth nursery school. "If you do nothing, the city collapses due to the executive's inaction," adds Dinarès.

Clara Cusó, from the PAH and Padró per a Totes, also blames the political and economic power for the situation. "We cannot talk about collapse when the meat industry needs cheap labor and you don't do urban planning," criticizes the activist, who assures that obstacles are being put in place for the schooling of children and for registration to prolong the process and that they will end up giving up, which they will not do because they work here. "Neither public housing has been built nor vulture funds' properties have been acquired, only a housing cooperative which is for people with certain resources," she laments.