Salt is known today as the municipality with the lowest per capita income in Catalonia. Also one of the towns with the highest concentration of migrant population: nearly 40% of residents are of foreign nationality. But what headlines have overlooked in recent years is that almost half of this town's surface is still orchards and pastures. The Monar canal, parallel to the Ter river, marks the border between the built-up Salt and the agricultural zone. Few facilities surpass it, except for a large institute built on fertile land. Located on the border with Girona, surrounded by greenery and with magnificent views of the Mare de Déu del Mont, lies Vallvera. A secondary and vocational training center with more than 1,200 students, inaugurated in 2008, which contrasts with its surroundings by being a large gray sheet metal center with a concrete-filled courtyard. "In winter it's a refrigerator and in summer an oven, there's no in-between!", laments the director, Ferran Maimir, who started this academic year with a direction very focused on working for the renaturalization of the courtyard, but with a different method: that the students themselves build the shade with their hands.

After years of back-and-forth negotiations and a host of uncertainties, the first images of what is to be the future Girona Health Campus were unveiled this Monday. This hospital complex will replace the current Josep Trueta Hospital and, according to institutional forecasts, should have its foundation stone laid by the end of 2028 and be completed by the end of 2031. The winning consortium in the design competition organized by Infraestructures.cat is the same one behind the Quironsalud Barcelona Hospital, the Doctor Moisès Hospital, and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, among other projects. This consortium, Pinearq, SLP & Brullet de Luna y Asociados and SLP & PEGI Engineering, SL., has designed a large hospital complex surrounded by trees, with green terraces and a large, car-free interior promenade. Named Devesa de Salut 21, it has received the highest score for the creation of a large amenity area with landscaped plazas connecting it to the city, and a commitment to renewable energy and bioclimatic architecture.

Twenty years ago, the then Minister of Health, Marina Geli, presented a model of the expansion of the major referral hospital for the Girona region: the Doctor Josep Trueta Hospital. The plan was for it to open in 2008, just as the economic crisis hit, but only three years later, the date was already being pushed back to 2015-2016. A decade has passed since then, along with a relocation of the facilities next to the Martí i Julià Hospital Park – better known as Santa Caterina – and a new timeline that places the opening of the new Girona Health Campus in 2031. Despite the agreement between institutions and the commitment that there is "nothing right now that will delay the schedule," doctors in Girona are questioning this timeline due to ongoing technical difficulties and "accumulated delays."

A step forward towards the construction of New Health Campus in Girona and Salt which is expected to transform the entire western urban area of the city. The Catalan government has agreed to an investment of almost 8 million euros to address urban and mobility improvements in the areas surrounding this project, which includes the Josep Trueta Hospital and a research and training complex, located around working-class neighborhoods such as Santa Eugenia, Can Gibert del Pla, and Mas Xirgu. The agreement was announced this Friday after the first bilateral commission meeting between the Catalan government and the Girona City Council.

The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) arrested a doctor this Monday morning in Blanes for allegedly sexually assaulting a patient at the Santa Caterina Hospital in Salt (Gironès). According to the report, The Punt Avui And ARA has confirmed that police have arrested the 66-year-old man for a crime against sexual freedom. The incident was reported on September 11 before midnight, and officers have opened an investigation to determine the circumstances.

This course, the Department of Education The Catalan government will no longer employ 85 social educators who until now worked in highly complex schools and institutes across the country. This measure drastically affects municipalities such as Salt, one of the poorest in Catalonia, where 11 social educators worked in recent years, but have left their jobs since September. The same applies to Figueres, where two professionals in this field have not renewed their contracts at centers in highly segregated neighborhoods. The decision by the Generalitat (Catalan government) has inflamed the socio-educational community, which, supported by families and organizations, claims that the role of social educators is "fundamental" to addressing the needs of the most vulnerable students. On Tuesday, they will be in the Catalan Parliament to make their voices heard.

For the first time in a century, Parisians can once again bathe in the Seine. The French capital took advantage of last year's Olympic Games to change residents' relationship with their river. In Bern, the river is a highway for people to let loose and go to the Swiss capital's large swimming pool area. This also happens, to a lesser extent, in the urban area of Girona, where from the Glory and the coronavirus has completely changed the relationship with the Ter.

After decades of obstacles and delays, the new Josep Trueta Hospital, which will be located on the southern border between Girona and Salt, is beginning to take shape. The Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan government) plans to award the winning architectural project in 2026, while the two city councils involved are working on urban planning modifications to equip the land with roads, roundabouts, lighting, and water connections. This week, the Girona municipal government presented its proposal for the urban development of the public space surrounding the new healthcare complex, with the location of Parc Jordi Vilamitjana being the main source of controversy. The intention is for it to be approved by June 2025 and for the Generalitat to definitively validate it before 2026.

The Salt riots The eviction of an imam sparked a surge in security concerns, which the right exploited and the far right used as a springboard against "Islamism." This has been seen in the Parliament since last week, in a context where this issue has been mixed with the migration pact for the distribution of migrant minors and the immigration transfer agreementVox and the Catalan Alliance have been the most forceful, mixing immigration, security, and Islam, but the PP has also raised its tone. Meanwhile, Junts has been announcing migration agreements but has avoided verbal escalation. How is Salt affecting Catalan politics?

Salt is the municipality with the lowest per capita income in Catalonia, and also one of the towns with the highest concentration of migrant population: nearly 40% of the residents are of foreign nationality. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, following the eviction of the family of Senegalese imam Kalilu Diawara, the migrant community of Salt took to the streets to demonstrate, and there were altercations and clashes with the policeBut the eviction of the spiritual leader from the mosque, coinciding with the month of Ramadan, has triggered an increasingly widespread discontent among the municipality's African-descended population; especially among young people born in Catalonia, fully Catalan, but who have long felt mistreated and discriminated against by institutions, and lacking the same opportunities as native families.

The new Josep Trueta Hospital is expected to be the major urban development project for the Girona region in the 21st century. It involves the construction of a large hospital center on the border between Girona and Salt, with cutting-edge technology to meet the needs of the entire population of the health region, as well as a research campus to incentivize research and retain local university talent. After more than 20 years of delays, unfulfilled promises, and disputes between administrations, the Salt City Council, the Girona City Council, and the Generalitat de Catalunya finally reached an agreement in the summer of 2020. final agreement on the land and location of the project. It will be built at the southern entrance to the city, on plots of land measuring around 305,000 m² (288,500 of which belong to the municipality of Salt and 16,500 to Girona), opposite the Santa Caterina Hospital, between the motorway and the Masrocs stream. As is customary with these infrastructures, the two local councils involved are responsible for providing the land and preparing the access points, while the Generalitat (Catalan government) is responsible for carrying out the work, which will cost more than €500 million.

The eviction of an imam and his family has inflamed the migrant community of Salt, which has long denounced housing racism and difficulties in accessing housing. The protests began Monday night spontaneously, without any prior communication or any organizing entity, and continued Tuesday night, in a second day of altercations and clashes that ended with at least six arrests.

Girona has experienced a first-class gastronomic metamorphosis in the Barri Vell since the pandemic. Anyone who has not visited the city in five years will be surprised by the number of new restaurants in the old part of town. But it is not the only focus where new projects have been born. The neighbourhoods with a greater presence of migrants are also experiencing their own transformation when it comes to restaurants. With more than 40% of the population of foreign origin, Salt is a municipality that is characterised by its cultural diversity. But the Girona neighbourhood that borders it has a higher migratory weight, almost 45%. It is Santa Eugenia de Ter, where in recent years the offer of restaurants with cuisines from all over the world has exploded. While a few months ago the first restaurant with Gambian and Senegalese cuisine opened in Salt, right on the border between the two municipalities a good part of the Latin American gastronomy offer is concentrated.

Girona's Appeal Court has rejected the public prosecutor's appeal in the case of the 49 Tsunami Democràtic activists accused of cutting off AP-7 motorway in Salt in November 2019, who have been cleared of charges. However, three more people are still being investigated over the protest that cut traffic on the motorway and ended with riots in Salt, as part of the protests against the sentencing of the leaders of the Catalan Independence bid.