“This is not Jamaica, this is Llobregat. There are no palm trees here. There is only dirt,” sang Decibelios, a punk rock group from the 80s from El Prat de Llobregat. The city of artichokes has changed a lot since then. Its natural spaces, in the Llobregat delta, are precisely one of its main attractions. Little remains of the memory of the stench that the old factories put out. This Saturday Comunes Sumar raised the flag of this ecological transformation led first by the PSUC, then by Initiative and currently by its political space. The idea is clear: extend Pratense policies to the rest of Catalonia. It is no coincidence that the mayor, Lluís Mijoler, is number two on the list of the candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, Jéssica Albiach.
With a t-shirt that read the motto ‘There is no planet B’, Albiach came out to make his speech at the traditional eco-socialist paella, which took place in the Parc Nou in the Sant Cosme neighborhood of El Prat. Albiach entered politics through Podemos, but he did not hesitate to claim the legacy of Salvador Milà for planning the desalination plants that have now helped to face the drought and of Joan Herrera for being a pioneer in putting the ecological transition on the table. Two references of the old Initiative. He also praised Ada Colau for her regulation of tourism. “We have stood up. We want infrastructure for Catalans, not just for tourists! ”He exclaimed. “We are the guarantee of not expanding the airport. We are the ecological vote,” said Albiach.
And then it went hand to hand, also with ERC, but above all with the PSC, the leader in the polls and with a large mass of voters precisely in the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona. “Salvador Illa is not the leader of a social democratic party, he looks like the leader of a cement company,” he said because of the socialists’ support for the expansion of the Barcelona airfield, the Hard Rock and the fourth beltway. The common people want to get the necessary force from 12-M to stop these projects and bet on the reinforcement of the train and public services such as health and education. But at the moment the polls are not particularly favorable to them. In El Prat, about 300 people supporting them. Far from what Illa carried out days before supported by President Pedro Sánchez in the next city, Sant Boi de Llobregat. The metropolis goes far beyond El Prat.
Comunes Sumar took out almost all of the artillery. “Now that we are talking about Hard Rock, I want to remember the fight won against Eurovegas led by former mayor Lluís Tejedor,” began the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, with the everlasting first mayor present in the park. “I am disappointed with the PSC, increasingly to the right, reaching climate denialism,” emphasized the former mayor of Barcelona, ??Ada Colau. “It is Baix Llobregat, not Bajo Llobregat,” countered Aina Vidal, spokesperson in Congress, recalling some words from Illa Spanishizing the name of the region.
The mayor of El Prat, Lluís Mijoler, closed the event. “Welcome to the world capital of ecosocialism,” he said. “We want a Catalonia more similar to El Prat,” he added, recalling the public water service, the local energy community and the fleet of shared electric vehicles. And regarding the expansion of the airport, the number two of Comunes Sumar concluded: “We will go to Parliament to defend our land.”
