“La Ruïna will be the tomb of fascism!” It was one of many vociferous slogans in the first demonstration of the day in which, finally, what had to be had had been achieved and what had to be done had been put in place to evict El Kubo and La Ruïna. From March 23, when the first court order for eviction was issued, to November 30, when it finally became effective. With a deployment of police resources that has worked like an hourglass, but a clock, and that shows that the problem was never, has never been, one of security. It was political will.
If you want to comply with the law, you can. In this case it would have been enough to stop making excuses and apply the Citizen Security law. The squatters of El Kubo and La Ruïna had distinguished themselves by their zero vulnerability (there was no trace of them in the month of August, when I and other colleagues from Ciutadans continued going every Tuesday to demand the peaceful, legal and democratic end of this disaster), for his uncivil virulence, for his readiness to insult and throw ugly blunt objects at police, journalists and neighbors. In short, these people had earned more than enough merit to be evicted sooner, much sooner, if there were not first municipal elections in the middle, then general elections, a demonized investiture, etc.
La Ruïna, tomb of fascism? Rather, it has been their sleeping bag for months and years of subjugation and hypocrisy. Finally it seems that what was happening is over. Is it true that this and other legacies of sociological Colauism are beginning to recede? Will we finally be able to sit down and talk seriously about housing, social and otherwise, about the 2,000 people who sleep on the streets of Barcelona every day, about the hundreds of families in social emergency and on a waiting list, about the rout of people fleeing Barcelona because they can’t pay their rent?
The solution to all this was never, never is, never will be, to stand in profile and cheer on the squatters, the squatters and the gangsters who make a living from them – including the Desokupas -, play with people’s feelings and make people feel guilty to the legitimate owners and good neighbors who pay their mortgages and their taxes and only ask for that, freedom and security for all. With social justice, yes. But the kind that reaches everyone, not just four spoiled faces.
It is fair to congratulate the Mossos d’Esquadra for their brilliant performance in this eviction, removing details such as cornering the press in blind corners and deliberately covering their visibility of what was happening with milk jugs. Things like this fuel the suspicion of background choreography, of great staging. But it’s the same. Even so, the police have shown that when politicians let them and support them, they know how to do their job and protect us all. Even the squatter who hung from the wall of El Kubo for hours, and who was at all times treated with care and consideration that neither she nor her colleagues have ever had with anyone in the neighborhood or who passed by there. .
Speaking of passing by. Servant and the people of Ciutadans who, since April 25, have encouraged ALL parties to form a united and transversal stand against this problem, which belonged to EVERYONE, we have been very alone, going on Tuesday to peacefully remember that the problem existed and had to be resolved . Neither Vox, which only appeared from the armed wing of Desokupa, nor the PP, which removes and replaces mayors of Barcelona, ??it is not clear what in exchange for what, have lifted a finger for the residents of Bonanova. Give me the useful vote and if I have seen you I don’t remember.
The socialist mayor, Jaume Collboni, promised during his campaign an Office for Attention to Victims of Squatting (Ciutadans’ idea, but we are happy to give it to him…) which he has not fulfilled either, but at least this Thursday, the City Council and the Ministry of the Interior of the Generalitat seemed to distinguish for the first time in a long time between the grave and the sleeping bag of fascism. And finally stop pretending that squatting is not a problem. Welcome to the solution.
