Cunit is considering changing the region and moving to Garraf

CunitThe mayor of Cunit, Jaume Casañas, wants the municipality to leave the Baix Penedès region and join the Garraf region, thus becoming part of the province of Barcelona. Casañas, who leads the Impulsem Cunit party, linked to Junts per Catalunya, is proposing a public referendum starting in 2027. Should the popular vote validate the proposal, approval would be required from the Catalan Parliament for the regional change and from the Spanish Congress for the provincial change. Casañas believes the referendum would garner a majority vote in favor: "90% of Cunit's current population has emotional ties to the province of Barcelona. On social media, we've detected that 80% of people are in favor of the regional and provincial change." The other parties represented on the council have not yet taken a position on the matter, but have not expressed opposition. Impulsamos a Cunit and the PSC have shared the local government since 2019 and have alternated in the mayoralty.

The mayor details several areas in which the change of region and province would be beneficial for the municipality of Cunit, such as housing, mobility, and security. "Barcelona's housing problems affect Cunit. Belonging to the ATM would allow us to have express buses and be included in the metropolitan transport zoning, and in terms of security, we have metropolitan dynamics. The Cunit train station is an access point for suspected criminals who commit thefts in the municipality," explains the mayor. And its reference hospital is in Sant Pere de Ribes, in the neighboring region, and commercially, the inhabitants of Cunit are more linked to Vilanova i la Geltrú.

The entire region?

Casañas, a geographer by training, goes further and advocates for the integration of the entire Baix Penedès region into the province of Barcelona, ​​citing the same dynamics he observes in Cunit. From the Baix Penedès County Council, its president, Rafel Ferré (PSC), who is also the mayor of the neighboring town of Calafell, argues that each municipality is free to consider a change of county and acknowledges problems with the region's territorial fit within the province of Tarragona. "It's an issue that hasn't been addressed in the Council of Mayors, and all fourteen municipalities in the region should be in agreement," Ferré states. The top county official believes there is currently a problem between the provincial division, in effect since 1835, and the County Council system, established in the 1980s, as well as the division by vegueries (administrative districts), which the Generalitat of Catalonia promoted in the first decade of the century but has not been implemented. The Baix Penedès region is part of the Penedès district, along with Alt Penedès and Garraf, but these two districts are in the province of Barcelona. Ferré explains that they receive more funding from the Barcelona Provincial Council, while the Baix Penedès feels neglected by the Tarragona Provincial Council. Furthermore, the Baix Penedès feels underrepresented in the plenary session of the supramunicipal body, since two of its five representatives are from the neighboring Tarragonès district, due to the division by judicial districts. "The Baix Penedès region represents more than 20% of the province's population. We want more investment. In the bilateral agreement between Baix Penedès and the Provincial Council, we requested two million euros for a new headquarters to centralize the offices of the Regional Council, which are currently spread across several buildings, but we need other investments," says Ferrer, who believes other investments are necessary. The Council on the growth of Baix Penedès and its governance are essential for making any decisions.

Tarragona invests

From the Tarragona Provincial Council, its president, Noemí Llauradó, a member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), expressed her utmost respect for Cunit's decision regarding its continued membership in the Baix Penedès region and, consequently, its status within the jurisdiction of the Tarragona Provincial Council. Llauradó acknowledged that the Tarragona Provincial Council has a budget of approximately 200 million euros, compared to the more than 1 billion euros of the Barcelona Provincial Council, which, however, has more large municipalities among which to distribute its resources. The president defended the Provincial Council's commitment to the Baix Penedès region, citing the opening last year of an office in El Vendrell and investments such as the one made in the URV nursing studies center in the region, as well as road infrastructure projects.

Llauradó admits that the Tarragona Provincial Council has limited resources, but that its role must also be that of a lobbyist to obtain more resources from higher levels of government, such as the Catalan Government, the Spanish State, and the European Union. He also highlighted the role of the supralocal body in improving rail mobility in southern Catalonia, where the Cunit station is an important hub.

Open doors

From the Garraf region, the president of the Regional Council, Luis Miguel García (PSC), is receptive to Cunit's incorporation into the region. "We discussed it with the mayor of Cunit in a meeting last month. We are good neighbors and share common problems such as mobility. We have no problem with this new addition. We welcome them." Should Cunit become part of Garraf, the region would increase from six to seven municipalities. "We have very significant population growth expectations in the coming years. We are currently approaching 170,000 inhabitants, and with the projected population increase and the addition of Cunit, we could reach 250,000 inhabitants in the next decade," García adds. It should be noted that Cunit has already surpassed 15,000 inhabitants after a very high population increase in recent decades – in 2000 it barely exceeded 6,000 inhabitants – and experts place the town among those that will grow the most in Catalonia in the coming years. García also points out that with the incorporation of Cunit, the Garraf region would gain more coastline.