Aware that to reach the Moncloa he needs to achieve a good result in Catalonia, where 48 of the 350 seats at stake are distributed, the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has returned to Barcelona in what is his third visit in just one month. In the first pre-campaign event, the Popular Party's presidential hopeful surrounded himself with the party's top brass in Catalonia to try to stop the rise of Vox.

Enthusiasm in the Catalan PP for who will be enthroned this Sunday as the PP candidate for Barcelona in the upcoming Spanish elections. The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, has been selected as the Populars' candidate for Barcelona with the fundamental task of being the antidote to Vox, especially considering the great growth of the radical right-wing party in the Principality. Once the elections were brought forward, it immediately became clear that the most beloved person within the Catalan PP is Albiol. Furthermore, La Vanguardia was already pointing out that the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was considering betting on him as a candidate.

The collective of lawyers for the defense of human rights Irídia has reported the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, for an alleged hate crime in a publication this week on social networks. The popular politician shared the photo of a handcuffed young man who, as he himself explained, had tried to rob a woman by snatching her bag, and called him "human scum". He added that he wanted to "send him back swimming to Morocco".

Mayor García Albiol, who I would say has a Christmas tree for decades, has published the photo of a pathetic "human scum", he called him, presumably handcuffed, who had snatched a grandmother's bag. The mayor said: "If it were up to me, I'd send him back swimming to Morocco. Unfortunately, thanks to the current government, tomorrow he'll be back on the street", which is a very subtle way of highlighting his origin. "You have to be a real scoundrel to mug an octogenarian woman. Today it didn't go well for him", he also said.

The Badalona City Council has installed about twenty concrete blocks under the C-31 highway bridge, precisely where for a few days dozens of homeless people lived in tents, most of them from the former B9 Institute. On March 24, the council led by the popular Xavier García Albiol ordered the eviction of the settlement, justifying it as a temporary measure for the need to clean and sanitize the area, which had been occupied since the end of December last year. However, he stated that once the toxic effect of the products used had passed, it would be allowed to be occupied again. Now, however, a municipal brigade has completely blocked access to the site, which is being guarded by an Urban Guard patrol, according to ACN. lived in tents for days, most of them from the former B9 Institute. On March 24, the council led by the popular Xavier García Albiol ordered the eviction of the settlement, justifying it as a temporary measure for the need to clean and sanitize the area, occupied since the end of December last year. However, he stated that once the toxic effect of the products used had passed, it would be allowed to be occupied again. Now, however, a municipal brigade has completely blocked access to the site, which is being guarded by an Urban Guard patrol, according to ACN.

A homeless man died Tuesday morning in a square in Badalona. His name was Jordi, and he was 52 years old. He was known in the city, as he had run a butcher shop a few years ago. But the business failed, and for the past few months he had been sleeping on the streets. Witnesses found him lifeless on a bench in Elisa Reverter Square, located in a part of Badalona that practically borders Montgat. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) confirmed that the body showed no signs of violence, and everything points to a natural death.

The mayor of Badalona, ​​​​Xavier García Albiol, He requested authorization on Friday to evict the homeless people who live in squalor under the C-31 bridge. He says that no former residents of Institut B9 remain—where he carried out a controversial eviction that literally left dozens of vulnerable people out in the cold during a severe cold snap—because they have all now been rehoused. Many of those people, like those now seeking to be displaced again without any consideration, are undocumented immigrants who, in many cases, work precariously and have great difficulty finding a place to live. Either because they cannot afford it or because they simply do not want to rent. It is the vicious cycle for undocumented immigrants, and for many who are documented, who, despite having jobs, cannot find a way to access decent housing. Hence the settlements that are proliferating everywhere and that are returning to the Catalan, and Spanish, landscape the image of large camps of shacks without the most basic services.

Xavier García Albiol swept the 2023 municipal elections under the slogan "Badalonismo," an umbrella term for defending residents "regardless of ideology." He then captured pro-independence voters and from left-wing parties, with dirt and insecurity as key issues. Two years later, the mayor is already influencing Catalan and Spanish politics with episodes related to security, immigration, and illegal employment, including clashes with the national government. The latest and most controversial, the eviction of B9Occupied by 400 people. Is Badalona a laboratory for the PP or a showcase? Has Albiol radicalized his discourse in a context of rising far-right extremism?

The Catalan government (Generalitat) brought the relocation process for those evicted from the former B9 high school in Badalona to a close just hours before it was due to end in 2025. They have announced the opening of a "new phase" in the emergency program implemented by the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion in collaboration with social service organizations. From now on, according to sources within the department, the Badalona City Council's social services will be responsible for monitoring and making new referrals for the approximately forty people still sleeping under the C-31 bridge. The government and the alliance of social service organizations will form a group to design comprehensive inclusion plans for those evicted from the former high school in Badalona. These plans will address their immigration status, access to the job market, training, and healthcare. According to the Department of Social Rights, "the return to Badalona of those temporarily displaced as part of the emergency operation will be encouraged so that they can develop their inclusion plans within the municipality."

Also at Christmas, the activist Carlos Sagués She's been going back and forth, visiting the dozens of people who, after being evicted from the B9 building in Badalona, ​​continue to live in squalor under the C-31 highway bridge. Much to her chagrin, Sagués is the public face of Badalona Acull, the umbrella organization for the city's social service agencies, whose volunteers dedicate countless hours, physical and emotional effort, to caring for this group. All of this is done without any public aid or subsidies. The case of the occupants of the former high school, cleared by court order earlier this month, isn't Sagués's only cause; she's been known for years for her efforts to prevent [the eviction of these people]. evictions of the residents of Sant Roc

In the crisis caused by Mayor Xavier García Albiol in Badalona with his petty sheriff-like actions (a crisis that will continue, initially, as long as people are sleeping rough, but which will have far-reaching repercussions), the People's Party's stance has been conspicuously absent for ten days. This is one of the most powerful mayoralties among the many held by the PP: the fourth largest city in Catalonia and—according to them—a major Spanish city. It was therefore necessary for the PP to take a position. Specifically, it was important to know Feijóo's opinion of Xavier García Albiol's decision (to carry out an eviction using police force) and also what he thought of Albiol's own handling of the situation. Albiol's management has consisted of puffing out his chest with bravado and corny jokes, and being far more concerned with appearing in the media trying to portray himself as a tough guy than with finding solutions to a debacle he himself created, which has caused division and social alarm. Feijóo had to comment on all of this. Did he approve? Did he disapprove? Did he approve but with some reservations? Was Albiol also keeping him informed "in real time" about what was happening in Badalona, ​​like Mazón did in Valencia?

The Catalan government and social organizations continue to relocate the people who were evicted on December 17th from the former B9 high school in Badalona without the City Council, under Mayor Xavier García Albiol, offering them any alternative housing. This Sunday morning, the Department of Social Rights reported that temporary accommodation has been found for another six people, bringing the total number of those rehoused to 153. The Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, Mònica Martínez Bravo, explained to RAC1 that the government's intention is to continue working with other administrations and social organizations to find dignified solutions for all the particularly vulnerable people who had been sheltering in tents and cardboard boxes under the C-highway bridge. The B9 building had housed around 400 people, but many of them decided to leave the former high school a few days before the police operation to avoid being identified by the officers.

"A society is measured by how it treats

Which We are living these days in Badalona.It is a reflection and consequence of the xenophobic rhetoric of the far right, which, in order to respond to people's discontent, seeks easy scapegoats in the weakest link of society: the most recent arrivals. The city's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, of the PP, He has behaved like an ultra-conservative, incendiary leader, blatantly linking immigration with insecurity and promoting and turning into a propaganda spectacle the eviction of a former educational institute occupied by people with nowhere to sleep.

This year, television stations will not need to broadcast any version of the A Christmas Carol Dickens's novels illustrate the inhumanity of a miserly capitalist. In Badalona, we have a mayor, elected by the voters, who shamelessly displays, and one might even say with a certain satisfaction, his boundless cruelty. With the world dominated by psychopaths who wield power in both politics and large corporations, it seems the floodgates have opened, and mediocre local leaders have taken over. empoweredThey no longer need to hide it and are crossing lines they've never crossed before. That's why Dickens is such a good mirror: they want to take us back to a time when the sense of justice hadn't yet been embodied in such revolutionary inventions as human rights.

In the morning, while doing that lovely thing of "decorating the house" for the celebration (it's more of a celebration than a party), as a declaration of intent that essentially says "You are welcome," we read the day's news in the ARA. Department of Social Rights has signed an agreement with the entities to provide shelter for the homeless of Badalona, ​​who lack it and have taken refuge under bridges. Every year, when the Institut d'Estudis Catalans chooses the neologism of the yearWe played a game where we tried to guess the most "beautiful" word in our language. Shelter It's one of those that always wins. Well then. It seems we'll put it into practice.

The eviction of the B9 high school in Badalona has caused a social upheaval in the city. For this reason, according to Directa, Mayor Xavier Garcia Albiol convened meetings with residents of the Sant Crist and Montigalà neighborhoods on Monday. In one of the meetings, as heard in an audio recording distributed by the same media outlet, the mayor asked the residents for "room to try to resolve the situation": "and if not, do what you think is best." Faced with the agitation of those present, Albiol urged caution: "I have a special recommendation for the younger people: don't say certain things because absolutely everything here is being recorded." "Imagine if something happens tonight," he asserted, "whoever said something should be burned down will be held accountable."

The decision to force four hundred homeless people onto the streets with police batons has degenerated into an extremely serious social crisis in Badalona. There have been clashing demonstrations, attempted lynchings of those evicted from the B9 shelter by groups of residents, and the impossibility of housing a group of these people in a church, even with the assistance of the Red Cross, due to the real risk of violence. Amidst the deplorable nature of it all, the only positive outcome has been the exposure of a certain type of person, and a certain type of rhetoric, sadly common these days: those who hate what they call "do-gooderism."

When things are done wrong, you can't expect them to turn out right. Tonight, In Badalona, ​​two groups of neighbors clashed at a distance, one group against the evicted immigrants and the other in favor.The audio in this video explains everything: