The new mayor of Badalona, ??Xavier Garcia Albiol, analyzes in this interview the situation that has led him to a government with an absolute majority and the measures that he will promote to face entrenched problems.
Political strategists will cite their electoral strategy. Do you recommend the campaign to erase ideologies?
Each municipality and each campaign is different. What I recommend is that they be honest and that they know how to interpret the concerns of their neighbors. Transferring a type of campaign that has worked in one city to another, maybe they could be wrong. The main asset of a politician is knowing how to read the reality of his city and interpret it, knowing what worries your neighbors
In these elections it has brought together a large number of young people who were voting for the first time. How have you convinced them?
It is true that we have detected an increase in the youth vote for us. I think that my way of doing politics and how I expressed it on social networks has helped me transmit. This is very positive because sometimes it seems that young people are moving away from politics and, in the case of Badalona, ??they have come to vote is very positive. I am honored that young people have trusted me.
For the same reason, has it scratched socialist and pro-independence votes?
There are thousands of pro-independence and socialist neighbors who have given us their trust. But surely it is a borrowed vote, a vote of confidence in what is expected of us to place Badalona in the place it deserves. That the socialist or pro-independence voter has taken this step for the first time opens the door for the PP to see that if things are done well, with a clear city project, we can erase ideological borders that do not allow us to access a large part of the population. This reading that transcends the municipal sphere, my party would do well to try to analyze it.
In his inauguration speech he cited political disaffection. How do you assess the abstention of 42% in Badalona?
Badalona has not had a problem of political abstention. We have moved as in the rest of the country and even a little above. It is true that the previous elections caused a large turnout because there was great national unrest and the European elections with Puigdemont and Jonqueras. I am very happy with the participation in Badalona at a time when we were risking the city model, not only for the next four years but for another fifteen.
Political analysts detect in Badalona a high rate of politicization in social and neighborhood entities. Does this dynamic harm you?
No. My experience as mayor is that, beyond ideologies, there has always been a lot of respect for neighborhood entities and I will continue in the same vein. Soon I will meet with the Federation of Vein Associations with which I have a very cordial relationship. It is true that there are entities that have a very important political component that sometimes prevents dialogue and reaching agreements, but at the level of neighborhood entities I have to admit that their predisposition has been very high.
Do you have confidence in the new political portfolio of the opposition to reach consensus on major city issues?
The opposition is mired in a very important internal crisis. It seems that there will be substitutions in leadership. I have to be respectful of them and that they are capable of promoting modifications. I will always be respectful with those who are designated as interlocutors and I will try to reach agreements on city issues. We have to design the city model we want for the next ten or fifteen years. Even if I have an absolute majority, I will try to reach agreements. But I have to be honest, I will talk to those who want to participate and grow the city. If someone settles in the no for the no, their opinion will have no place in the transformations that Badalona needs.
With which opposition councilor would you feel more comfortable to address these issues?
As I heard in the speeches during the investiture plenary session, everyone wants to make a clean slate. It is evident that Guanyem de Dolors Sabater seems installed in his speech of insult and disrespect to those who have not voted for him. Either he changes his attitude or he will be left in a totally marginal position given the representation of him.
He also said that he will not waste too much time looking back, but the ‘All against Albiol’ campaign or the political blockades are not far away…
The memory is But it is true that the neighbors have not voted for me to reproach how other political parties treated me. The city is so bad that I have to spend all my time to improve the City Hall. I will not fall into their trap, nor in the game that they have carried out during these years, it is a strategy that has been shown to not work and that in the end the neighbors have punished. Now, I insist that those who want to maintain old debates will be marginalized, not only by the government but also by the neighbors.
Do you feel bad that Rubén Guijarro is leaving local politics?
Well. When I governed we had a very cordial relationship, but this relationship did not last because he has not counted on us for a year and a half. However, I wish him all the best in his personal life.
Security is one of his government’s priority issues. But without the Guàrdia Urbana it will not be possible and it is difficult for the body as it is…
It is true that for different reasons the Guàrdia Urbana has a series of internal conflicts that do not give the best image and surely have an impact on the service. But honestly I have to admit that whenever I have governed the Guàrdia Urbana it has risen to the occasion and I am convinced that it will also happen during this mandate. We need an Urban Guard up to the moment, with more agents, material and decent conditions. My will is to start the reform of the police station at the end of the year. The last year and a half has been a forgotten body, with a non-existent councilor, with total insouciance. The city has paid the consequences and it is a dynamic that I want to reverse. The main element to influence is the insecurity and climate of incivility that many areas of the city experience. I know it won’t be as fast as I’d like but over the next few months you’ll start to see changes.
And how do you assess that a union of police chiefs, among whom is the superintendent of Badalona, ??dares to sue a councilor for a labor dispute?
These facts show the climate of conflict that has existed in the Guàrdia Urbana in recent years. That is why I have already spoken with those responsible and in the next few days I will meet with the unions of the body. I am sure that everyone will be able to put aside the confrontation to work for the common good. My commitment is to promote the expansion of the workforce and improve their material and working conditions.
Will he reactivate the Omega Unit?
Yes Yes. I hope that after the summer it can be put into operation. We will immediately take measures such as having the unit act in the conflict zones as well as when leaving the clubs on weekends. Before, it was one of their tasks, which other agents will assume for the moment, as well as the new device of the Sant Joan festival with access controls to areas such as the beach, all to achieve a more active police model.
And as for the illegal occupations?
Without going any further, on Tuesday we had a problem with some violent squatters who were evicted and tried to camp in the middle of the city. In 24 hours, a very effective action by the Guàrdia Urbana resolved the problem.
Will you create an exclusive department for occupations?
Yeah. I have already appointed a councilor who will be in charge of the first council in Spain against the illegal and conflictive occupation. Soon we will endow it economically and with human and material resources. The service will attend 24 hours a day to residents who have these problems and will also offer advice to those affected. The City Council will actively file a complaint in those most conflictive occupations.
What about the community police?
One of the restructurings that I want to carry out is to have neighborhood guards patrolling the streets. In the coming months we will promote a call for positions for the coming months, of 60 or 70 agents for the first part of the mandate. We need more agents and more reaction on the street.
Multiple recidivism and organized groups of criminals well established in city neighborhoods are another problem. In this sense, the powers belong to the Mossos, will you ask Minister Elena for more troops?
The Mossos do a great job and have always collaborated positively. I want to meet with the minister because we need help to reverse the situation that is taking place in some areas of Badalona. These criminal clans is an area of ??great concern that I am sure we will also turn around.
Lately, sexual assaults have brought Badalona to all the media. How do you appreciate that a patriarch of the Roma community declares that he punishes the minors who assaulted the girls by expelling them for three months?
It seems surreal to me that someone could consider that there is a legality apart from that of the rule of law. This is not the model that fixes the problem. Tomorrow I meet with the Minister of Social Rights and I hope to go from good words to concrete deeds. It is evident that the protocols have not worked and we cannot continue doing the same. I will ask you to act in three differentiated areas such as social services, education and justice itself, to bring order to some situations that are experienced in the Sant Roc neighborhood.
The Department of Social Rights has declared that they want to apply in Badalona other protocols that already work in other cities…
When they tell me that they want to apply the plans that are already in place in other cities, I am willing to listen to them as long as they are realistic and it can be shown that they can be effective for the situation in the Sant Roc neighborhood. My desire is that there be a proposal that helps reverse the dramatic situation in the neighborhood, with worrying rates such as 40% of school absenteeism.
Should the Badalona Sud Consortium be recovered?
I think it’s a formula that worked in certain ways, but the situation is very different from fifteen or twenty years ago when the model was created. We must look for other formulas between the Generalitat and the City Council. The legal figure is not as important as the content of the proceedings.
If we talk about Shock Plan. How is it understood that there is money in the box and that you cannot invest the remainder? Transforming the City Hall can take years.
I am convinced that the transformation of the administrative apparatus of the City Council can be carried out in months. Badalona cannot wait for the City Council to start working efficiently to start promoting policies for public roads, cleaning or investing in municipal equipment. At the same time, we must provide the best service to the public and expedite the administrative transformation. At this time, the Badalona City Hall is totally blocked.
Where is the problem of the City Council?
There is no single person responsible for the current blockade situation. There is a lack of professionals on the staff, there is demotivation, disorganization… The conflict in the City Council is transversal. I am sure that in a matter of months we will be able to turn the situation around in a reasonable way.
But the blockade of the City Council has not been generated in a year…
The one who gave the deadly blow to the City Council was the government of Dolors Sabater. From that moment on, the situation has deteriorated to the point of having departments that do not have a single worker. We cannot grant licenses from the month of November because there is no lawyer. The City Hall is upside down. As an administration that provides services to citizens, it is the worst off. For example, in the Zorrilla theater and the Museum, two emblematic places in Badalona, ??the air conditioning has not been working for a long time.
And the good professionals will want to come to work at the City Council seeing what is there?
People will come if there is a city project. It is true that the economic conditions of Badalona are below other similar municipalities, this is evidence. But if we are able to offer an exciting project, people with a good professional profile will want to join the project.
The cleanliness problem is closely associated with incivility. In this sense, do you plan to implement video surveillance cameras?
We will put video surveillance cameras in those points where incivility is located, but especially where there is more insecurity. I have already requested a meeting with the cleaning concessionaire to incorporate improvements in the service before a new tender for the contract comes out this year.
Another of the needs that you mentioned is the lack of affordable housing in Badalona and for this it has seven municipal plots…
Badalona has seven plots to promote public housing. I can guarantee that in this mandate all of them will go on the market to build public housing. I also want to make an effort to respond to the city’s middle class who cannot pay a rent of more than 1,000 euros and cannot access rent aid. These are people who can afford affordable rent that we have to take care of.
What type of housing promotions are you thinking of, public-private, private initiative or in the Metropolitan Area?
I have no complexes in talking about public-private collaboration if it can allow us to speed up the processes and qualify for a reasonable offer of public housing. Collaboration between the administration and the private sector is a formula that I bet on.
Will it promote the Olympic swimming pool on the grounds of the old Focus?
Yeah. There is no defined project other than the one that began in 2012 and it is necessary to finish updating it. It is necessary to speak beforehand with the sectors involved, such as the Swimming Club, so that this year the land can begin to be conditioned and in 2024 it can be built.
Do the rest of the sports facilities in Badalona also have many shortcomings?
This should be an immediate response. It is Third World that we have sports facilities where users cannot even shower. My will is that in September, when the preseason begins, the facilities are in minimum conditions so that athletes can shower.
One of its claims is to project Badalona abroad. During his tenure, he already tried to generate synergies with Sant Adrià and Santa Coloma to promote Baix Besòs. Will he return to reactivate projects like the triangle of knowledge?
Badalona has lived with its back to the metropolitan impulse for a long time. I aspire to be able to project Badalona as a benchmark city in Catalonia. In this sense, the collaboration and complicity between the town councils, with which I have already had a very good relationship, must be maintained. I already have scheduled meetings with the two mayors. When I have been mayor, being in different parties has not prevented us from reaching agreements.
With electoral results like Badalona or Castelldefels, the PP will have more strength in the Metropolitan Area. Will they claim their place?
The fact of having five city halls, four of them in the province of Barcelona, ??allows us to have more strength. In this regard, I selfishly hope that Feijó is president of the government to maintain the dialogue that I already have and that it results in something positive for the territory.
In terms of environmental policies, how will it affect alleviating the regression of the beaches?
I will demand with all my energies the Ministry, but I will also demand effective measures. We have a very serious problem with the sand on the beaches. Someone will have to explain to me why the State acted in Montgat and Sant Adrià, but it did not in Badalona. This worries me, as does the discharge of wastewater into the sea. In this sense, we will promote the construction of three rainwater tanks, if possible with European funds, to avoid contamination of our beach.
It also has in its portfolio the transformation of the C-31 motorway…
Yeah. Beyond the day to day, we have projects that we must start setting a long-term horizon. In Badalona we suffer a concrete border that divides the city. If Hospitalet and Barcelona have been able to erase these cement borders, in Badalona we must also be able to. We will look for the best formula, whether underground or on an urban road on the surface.
In this sense, Barcelona did not think much of its neighbors either to promote the Glorias tunnel…
Barcelona, ??since the nineties, has forgotten about Barcelonès Nord. If we had had strong and consolidated councils, the situation would be different. With the stability that we have now, in the medium term we can begin to mark the lines so that this type of project becomes a reality.
