Parliamentary majority commits to ensuring universal registration

BarcelonaThe PSC, Comuns, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, and the CUP signed an agreement this Wednesday in which they commit to guaranteeing universal registration in compliance with the law. Pact for the Register in Catalonia It is an initiative promoted by more than a hundred social entities, from Cáritas, ECAS, LaFede to Confavc and aFFaC, which requires the registration of all residents without asking about their administrative status, whether they have a rental contract or not or if they live in substandard housing. On the other hand, the PP, Vox, Aliança Catalunya and also TogetherThe council members have justified their refusal by stating that the agreement does not resolve "in-depth issues fundamental to the management of the registry that is consistent with the tools and resources the country currently has." It so happens that yes, it has been added to the MEScat Pact, a party born from a split from the PSC and integrated into Junts as an internal current.

Two months ago, the Network for the Register proposed the creation of a national pact that would protect registration without conditions in strict compliance with the local government law and the regulations that develop it, as well as the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, which on different occasions has censured the fact that city councils put obstacles to an administrative procedure which is both a right and an obligation.

In negotiations with political groups, the Network had already assumed the refusal of the Popular Party (PPP) and the far right, but as they explained, they were confident that Junts would ultimately come to sign a text that only demands "compliance with the law," according to Amnesty International's head of institutional relations, Júlia Pérez. "Bilateral and specific work has been carried out with this group to try to accommodate their demands to the text," the activist continued, but ultimately no agreement was reached. While the Network regrets the absence of the Junts members (who govern in some 300 municipalities), Maria Creixell, spokesperson for the Obrim Fronteres Coordinator, has indicated that they can join whenever they want. In fact, difficulties in registering voters are present across the political spectrum, and on this point, ECAS spokesperson Lluís Puigdemont has urged that the register not be used as a "political weapon" and that no mayor be tempted to "gain political advantage" by restricting access.

The violation of a right

On the ground, the entities denounce that the town councils are against registering everyone they deploy obstacles ranging from of the delay in the response to the request for unnecessary documentation, through to the rejection of entry into the registry if a rental contract or the title deed of the apartment is not provided. It is also detected the little use that the councils make of the figure of fictitious registration, designed for residents who eke out a living on the streets, in shacks, or in cars, or for people whose landlords won't allow them to register at their homes.

The pact aims to "provide a collective response" to the "flagrant violation of a basic right," in Puigdemont's words. Without a census, access to healthcare, education, or social benefits is not guaranteed. Refusal to register is "a mechanism of structural discrimination that affects homeless or vulnerable families, expelling them from the system of rights and creating second- or third-class people."