“What Revolta Pagesa demands is quite similar to what we rural councils ask for,” reflects Joan Solà, mayor of Riner (Solsonès), sitting on the porch of the farmhouse of Ramon Vilà, a farmer involved in this movement in defense of agriculture. . The reduction of bureaucracy is the workhorse of all. “There is so much paperwork that they ask of us that the structures of the town councils have become obsolete, we are not prepared to absorb so many demands. Either we move towards administrative simplification or we improve our financing to hire more staff and thus be able to satisfy all the procedures that are required of us,” adds Solà, also president of the Associació de Micropobles de Catalunya. The mantra is that city councils that barely have one permanent worker cannot be subjected to the same obligations as capitals with an army of officials.
With 267 registered residents, Riner is part of the group of 484 municipalities with less than 1,000 inhabitants in Catalonia, those considered micro-towns. Just over 28% of the residents of this Solsonès enclave are over 65 years of age compared to the 19.35% average for Catalonia. One of their challenges is to retain young people, to make it a little easier for them so that when they emancipate they are not forced to leave, among other reasons, due to the very limited residential offer.
Ramon Vilà, 45 years old, has always been clear that he would live in the countryside, like his parents, his grandparents, his great-grandparents… “In 1905,” he comments, “my ancestors settled here in front of us, in Rovira-Sança, to work. of masoveros.” He bought a 4.5 hectare farm nearby to build his own home. Precisely, one of the demands of Micropobles, the Eines de Repoblament Rural lobby and also Revolta Pagesa is to make urban planning regulations more flexible to, in specific cases, allow construction on rural land in the face of the chronic housing deficit. Solà (Junts) trusts that after the electoral break the new Government will diligently resume the processing of the statute of rural municipalities to address this and other urgent issues.
It took Vilà three years and being forced to file an administrative dispute, which he later withdrew, to be able to build his house, where he lives with his partner and six children. Around half of the inhabitants of Riner reside in some 60 farmhouses, the other half in one of the towns that make up the municipality, Freixinet, Santa Susana and Su, and in the Miracle complex, where a small community of Benedictine monks lives. of Montserrat. Here, in a building classified as a historical monument, the headquarters of the City Council was also established, the Casa Gran, which previously operated in Solsona.
“I am one of the few neighbors who live exclusively from agriculture, the majority have complementary activities. I take care of my cereal fields and those of other owners, in total about 160 hectares of wheat, barley, rapeseed and fodder, mainly used for the production of pig feed. For dryland cereal to be profitable, it is necessary to cultivate large areas,” explains Vilà. Next to him, the mayor points out that Riner’s economy depends on the service sector and livestock. “If it weren’t for the farms, there would be no one left; Before, we survived with small farms that had a little bit of everything, garden, cereal, chickens and four pigs, then, about 25 years ago, when the integrators, Tarradellas, Vall Companys or BonÀrea arrived, we realized that to survive we had to “We have to focus on pig farms,” ??they add. The latest data published by Idescat indicate that 16 pig farms with 17,000 animals operate.
Of the 85 jobs in Riner, 50 correspond to the service sector, 30 to the agricultural sector and 10 to industry. Unemployment is reduced to 4.2% compared to the 8.97% average in Catalonia, also according to Idescat.
Vilà’s children go to school in Solsona because it is closer to them than their municipality, in the center of Freixinet, which is now going through a good time as it has 23 students, explains teacher Carme Vendrell. “But next year eight will go to school and we will stay with 15, which is the usual number,” the teacher specifies. Vilà regrets that his children, being schooled in a town that is not theirs, “do not have the right to a dining room.” Solsonès, known as the region of a thousand farmhouses, “has a very different reality, with many scattered nuclei, perhaps the casuistry of each territory should also be considered in education,” she believes.
The rural outlook must permeate everything to not go backwards, the mayor insists. The population fluctuations in Riner have not been very pronounced, but compared to ten years ago it has lost 18 inhabitants. “Urbanism is a key factor in retaining one’s own neighbors and attracting new ones; They constantly call us to ask if there is housing available, people who work nearby, in Solsona or Cardona, and those who want to telework. When we talk about repopulation we must also think about the generations of young people who want to stay here,” says Solà.
The most ambitious project is the rehabilitation of the Casa Gran, a monumental Miracle building where they want to open museum spaces and a recording room for their own orchestra and for musicians from around the world. A call for Next Generation European funds has been used to finance the 2.7 million it costs. Contrasting feelings emerge at City Hall; On the one hand, they pray that this sum be granted to them and on the other they beg that it be rejected. How to manage with so few staff everything that an initiative of such dimensions entails? Solà asks.
