Barcelona's City Council approves a motion of censure against Mayor Jaume Collboni for his management in the Sant Antoni neighbourhood. Junts, PP and Vox vote in favour; ERC and BComú abstain.
The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, has been censured this Friday in the municipal plenary. The motion, presented by Junts, passed with the votes of PP and Vox, while ERC and BComú abstained. The text criticises the "absolute incompetence" of the municipal government regarding the Sant Antoni neighbourhood and accuses the mayor of "abandoning" his residents in the face of issues related to coexistence and security.
The leader of Junts, Jordi Martí, lamented that in the past year, Collboni's administration has achieved "no concrete results" despite the emergency plan approved in August of last year. Martí reproached the district councillor for Eixample, Jordi Valls, that the problems in the neighbourhood cannot be resolved merely "with renders or urban reforms".
"There are people defecating, people using drugs, and people afraid to go out on the streets. All this can be dismissed as catastrophism, but no, it is not catastrophism, it is a situation at the limit and we must empathise with the people"
In light of this situation, Junts has demanded that the municipal government implement the emergency plan approved over a year ago and has called for 24-hour police presence, especially in areas with more conflicts of coexistence.
Councillor Jordi Valls defended the municipal actions. According to him, since the PSC took over the mayoralty, "the focus has been on the neighbourhood" with numerous urban reforms, such as the ronda de Sant Antoni and the consolidation of the pedestrianisation of Borrell and Parlament streets. Valls claimed to have held up to 45 meetings with local entities to seek solutions and urged Junts to work together to avoid stigmatising Sant Antoni.
"This government does not want to look the other way"
The censure has received support from PP and Vox. PP councillor Sonia Devesa stated that the motion "goes beyond Sant Antoni" and summarised Collboni's term as an exercise in "hiding the problem". Meanwhile, the president of the Vox municipal group, Gonzalo de Oro, deemed the approval of the proposal "insufficient", as "the problem will not have a solution the next day". De Oro insisted that the situation did not appear "out of nowhere" and that the emergency plan "has failed again".
ERC and BComú, who abstained, agreed that the issues in Sant Antoni cannot be resolved with more patrols. Republican Eva Baró criticised Martí for making "catastrophist speeches" and reproached him for his party "preventing" decrees that allow for the eviction of vulnerable individuals. From BComú, councillor Guille López asserted that the problems in the neighbourhood "are not exclusive" to Sant Antoni and attributed the censure to the mayor's "failures".
The censure, although symbolic, highlights the political pressure on Collboni regarding a matter that directly affects the residents of Eixample. The emergency plan, which was supposed to enhance security and coexistence in the area, continues to fail to deliver the expected results according to the opposition. The municipal government has not announced any changes to its strategy for the neighbourhood so far.
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