The socialist municipal group in the Badalona City Council (Barcelonès Nord) considers that the action protocol against cases of illegal occupation of properties that the PP government is bringing for approval in the next plenary session “does not have legal guarantees nor does it protect the agent of the Guàrdia Urbana (GUB) in an action against an illegal occupation” says the PSC councilor, Cristian Carneado.
For its part, the municipal government insists that the secretary of the City Council has reported that what is approved is an action protocol that “in its expository part already informs the legal framework on which it is based” and therefore “does not require “no other justification, no legal procedure” as explained by municipal sources. The government reiterates that “this is not a political opinion, but rather the explanation that the secretary has given to all municipal groups.” The protocol, the government continues, “has been prepared by the Urban Police, is signed by the superintendent and has been reviewed by a judge and a prosecutor.”
However, Carneado demands that the government of Xavier Garcia Albiol give greater guarantees that the protocol has real legal validity. To do this, he demands the signature and endorsement of the City Council’s lawyers and jurists and that the names of the prosecutor and the judge who legitimize the draft be made known. “The reality is that no one has wanted to sign it,” says the councilor and clarifies that “the superintendent can make a service instruction” but this does not pass in full and therefore it is not understood that it is the head of the GUB who signs the document. protocol. “It is not enough to cite the security law and the penal code in the text” but it must be endorsed by a jurist.
The PP government assures that, precisely among the objectives of the protocol is to legally define the actions of local police officers in accordance with the Constitution, the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, as well as the rest of the legal system applicable in these cases. With this, they intend that, in the different scenarios, police action is carried out with all legal guarantees. The mayor affirms that “it is the instrument that gives legal security to the Guàrdia Urbana in its actions in the occupations.”
For the former Security Councilor of the previous four-party government “what the plenary approves has to be supervised” and in this case “it is not.” Furthermore, he inquires about the role in which the Mossos d’Esquadra will remain, “will they have less powers before the Guàrdia Urbana?” he wonders. Furthermore, he regrets that, while other cities have worked together with bar associations and the judicial establishment, in Badalona “Albiol comes up with the magic formula” to vacate homes.
If, as appears to be the opinion of the absolute majority of the PP, the protocol is approved, Carneado affirms that “the GUB agents will act without legal certainty” and before a judge, the agent may find himself unprotected because he acts based on a regulation “ that has no legal validity.”
