The PSC is willing not to let the discourse on citizen security be monopolized by Vox. The ultra party monopolizes this matter in each plenary session of Parliament, where they blame the Government day in and day out for shortcomings in this area for electoral purposes, but the socialists have proposed to wage the political battle against them in the municipal elections, for That is why they have organized a conference on security entitled ‘From global action to local action’ with which they intend to strengthen their proposals in this area ahead of the new appointment with the polls.
Salvador Illa’s party considers that citizen security policies “are not right-wing policies”, but “they are left-wing”, and they feel the need “not to let this policy be monopolized only by right-wing and extreme right-wing discourses” , as pointed out by the party’s secretary for security policies and mayor of Santa Coloma, Núria Parlon, who has defended the idea with which the socialist proposals in this area are born: “the perspective of the left, of social cohesion and of preserving the democratic”.
The conferences that will take place this Saturday will be attended by some of the most important socialist mayors in the metropolitan area, such as Antonio Balmón (Cornellà), Rubén Guijarro (Badalona), or Parlon herself. And also of some of the aspirants in the contest to be held in 2023, such as Jaume Collboni (Barcelona), Fèlix Larrosa (Lleida), Rubén Viñuales (Tarragona). But above all, the assistance of the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the director of the Center for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), Manuel Navarrete, stand out.
In terms of security, Salvador Illa’s party, which will open the conference, sets itself the goal of “working to strengthen social cohesion” against the Vox formula, which “uses citizen insecurity to make a policy that does not strengthen the citizens’ trust in institutions,” says Parlon.
Among the issues to be discussed are issues such as multiple recidivism in common crimes, the “perception of insecurity” that citizens have despite the fact that crime rates are going down, and the problem of occupations.
This last area is of particular concern to socialist mayors, who have seen how home occupations have increased not for reasons of social vulnerability, but to carry out crimes such as drug trafficking or the clandestine production of marijuana.
Parlon maintains that in this matter one must be very careful not to “instrumentalize certain discourses”. In his opinion, it is the right that makes a flag of a problem that they mix with crime, and in his opinion “you should not mix housing needs with criminal occupation.” Both take place in Catalonia, but the mayor defends that the problem is not caused by occupation due to housing needs, but by criminal activity.
“When we know that there is a need for housing, the city councils respond”, but at the same time there are cases in which the flats “become marijuana plantations”. Faced with these types of cases, “people are afraid and feel insecure, and that is when the speeches of the extreme right take hold, but that does not mean that we should have a lax attitude towards occupations.
The problem is both in the typology of the occupations and in the quantity, according to the mayor, because “55% of irregular occupations in Spain take place in Catalonia” and “we must differentiate between occupations that are the result of vulnerability, those who are delinquent”. For this reason, the PSC criticizes both Vox’s speech on this matter and those who practice “goodism”.
Also recidivism in crimes such as theft will be analyzed in these sessions. In this sense, socialists and PDeCAT have already promoted in Congress a modification of article 234 of the Criminal Code to punish with prison the multiple recidivism in thefts, even if the value of what was stolen is less than 400 euros.
The modernization of the security systems available to municipalities and the specific solutions that these administrations have been proposing to improve the “feeling of security” will also be addressed. In this sense, Parlon values ??the measures that can be applied at the local level to articulate a preventive metropolitan security policy. They are the case of having more video-monitored areas, taking advantage of technology for more direct contact with local police, the watchdog projects that have been implemented in Cornellà or Santa Coloma.
