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:

During this year of 2025, which is about to end, few images in Catalonia have been more shocking than those seen Sunday night in Badalona, ​​when a small group of residents forcibly prevented fifteen immigrants from the group evicted from the B9 high school from being rehoused in the parish of Our Lady of Montserrat. This is the extent of hatred and inhumanity displayed by some residents who have embraced the rhetoric fueled by the city's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, against a group of 200 people who now have to seek shelter under a bridge in freezing temperatures.

Two separate demonstrations, one for and one against the acceptance of those evicted from the B9 high school in Badalona, clashed this Monday afternoon in front of the gates of the municipal shelter that closed almost two years ago in the Montigalà neighborhood. On one side, hundreds of activists, convened by the Socialist Housing Union, defended the humanitarian assistance provided to the group of young migrants, about ten of whom have been using the shelter since becoming homeless a week ago. Separated by a cordon of riot police from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), some 300 people shouted racist slogans demanding that they be evicted from Can Bofí Vell and not given shelter. "Let them go back to their country," was the least offensive slogan heard from the neighborhood gathering, where families with children were seen alongside far-right individuals who accused "blacks" of being criminals and creating insecurity. "We don't want them in the neighborhood," a neighbor stated, but her husband, standing beside her, also rejected the idea of opening any other space to care for them.

It's already Christmas in Badalona... Experience it... Let yourself be swept away by the magic of the most Christmassy city. In Badalona, ​​we can do our shopping amidst songs and colorful lights and admire the tallest Christmas tree in Spain, a tree that encourages local businesses. But the magic doesn't stop there, because this year there's another surprise that will delight young and old alike: Mayor García Albiol's living nativity scene.

It might even seem amusing that Xavier García Albiol justifies the eviction of the B9 Institute in Badalona (which drew criticism from two UN rapporteurs) by resorting to the tired old argument that the left's do-gooder attitude and inaction regarding immigration "are what cause it." If we weren't talking about one of the most delicate, urgent, and complex problems we face as a society, Albiol's words would have a touch of humor, because, in relation to the far right, he could paraphrase Bécquer's verses: "What is the far right? And you ask me that? Extraordinary?"