• Municipal plenary session. Albiol becomes mayor of Badalona after the division of the left

The return of Xavier García Albiol dusts off the doctrine that gave him a large electorate in Badalona and controversial sounds, especially outside the city. At the moment only intentions are outlined, but the PP mayor proclaims again the severity of which he boasted in the four-year period that the City Council captained and repeats a message against insecurity, which detects that it spreads on the periphery of the town.

"There are hot spots, let's say it clearly", defines Albiol. It places them, again, in neighborhoods where Badalona stacks hardships, traditional left-wing fiefdoms in which the conservative devastates with voting percentages that exceed 50%.

A week after regaining command over the disputes of his rivals, the popular outlined to reconstruct the vectors that channeled the harshness he transmitted when he commanded between 2011 and 2015. For now, he studies how many police officers to incorporate into the reactive brigade he intends to recover, Urban Guard officers equipped as riot police.

The first albiolate baptized it as the Omega Unit , shaped by socialist governments. It was composed by two teams of eight members each. They entered the biggest plus of the local police, about 500 euros. The main union of the City Council, PSU , applauds that it is rescued, while the majority in the Urbana, SFP , avoids positioning itself, but asks not to fall into an unbalanced remuneration compared to that of other agents.

"The philosophy will be the same, updated five years later," announces the mayor, who advocates that the patrol reinforce "trouble spots" and night hours. No reappearance date.

"It is a mistake. If what is claimed is more proximity police, having riot gear waiting in a van is not the best decision," thinks former mayor Dolors Sabater , who eliminated the squad, which she identified with Albiol. "It was very expensive and mortgaged agents for other actions. As it had to justify its existence in interventions for which it was not intended, there were unjustified actions. There were complaints of police abuse," he alleges.

Also in opposition to the PP, the PSC does not oppose the brigade "if it does not have political overtones", conditions the socialist Rubén Guijarro . "Photographing himself in his performances and telegraphing them when they had not yet happened, the preponderance of the councilman of the moment and the mayor over the unit denoted that it had political content," says Guijarro, who believes that the PP is taking over the police in a "sweet moment", with the expected incorporation of about 50 agents before the end of the year.

"They are not enough. We need 310 to 315 agents," opposes the new councilor for Security, Irene González , Albiol's close collaborator for years. According to the unions, Badalona now has about 220 local police officers, with which the PP would be missing about 90. González has proposed examining the increase in the presence of the Urbana in sections of the Llefià and La Salut neighborhoods , where he states that "fights "," incivismo "and" squats that are not by necessity, but by mafias "feed insecurity.

Performances

After being invested, Albiol has announced that the taking of the old fire station and two empty floors has been frustrated. The difficulty of paying for a roof has caused that in neighborhoods that credit rents among the lowest in Catalonia, such as Sant Roc , the illegal transaction of homes that have been forced to open their doors and that needy families enter their homes into their own account of financial entities and investment funds. The past crisis fueled it and scarcity has entrenched it. In 2019, 132 evictions of homes in which there was no mortgage or rent were registered in the Badalona judicial party, more than a quarter of those practiced.

Albiol predicts that he will attack "with force" the phenomenon that he has always reviled and promises answers for "people who really need" a home. The previous PP government walled desert floors with metal plates. It used to please the neighbors, unlike social entities, which criticized that no attempt was made to rent them to those who suffered evictions. "If legally they can be covered now, it is one option among several," says the mayor, who is requesting more mossos this summer in the population in the face of a predictable greater influx to the beach for fear of moving due to the coronavirus.

Badalona closed 2019 with more favorable crime rates than the province of Barcelona. Instead, they have worsened in the first quarter of 2020. "There is no differential factor with Santa Coloma, L'Hospitalet or Terrassa , but in one part of the city there is great social unrest and security problems that lead to there being neighbors afraid to leave at certain times, "argues the mayor. The premise -basic in Albiol- makes you connect with the Badalona suburbs, exposed to unemployment and hunger.

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  • Badalona
  • PP
  • Xavier García Albiol
  • PSC
  • Mossos d'Esquadra
  • Catalonia
  • Barcelona
  • Popular Party of Catalonia

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