The situation of common in Barcelona it is getting more complicated every day. In fact, if they were to abide by their own code of ethics, the list of commons should probably run shortly and perhaps some leader should step down.
According to its code of ethics, the representatives of the Ada Colau committed to “the immediate resignation or termination of all charges before the judicial indictment of crimes related to corruption, prevarication for profit, influence peddling, illicit enrichment with public or private resources, bribery, embezzlement and appropriation of funds public ”. The reality in the end is far from the theory. In recent months we have seen how certain charges have been imputed and there has not been the slightest reaction in line with the party’s code of ethics. In the end, those who came to free us from the corruption of the traditional parties turn out to be incapable of fulfilling the commitments that they signed with great fanfare during the electoral campaign.
The whirlwind in which Colau will be immersed in the coming days will not be easy for the common people to manage. After the security crisis due to the protests against the arrest of Pablo Hasél, the mayor of Barcelona faces several judicial fronts. One of them has had a tail for a while. Colau’s number two, Janet Sanz, and his team, are being investigated for four possible crimes: prevarication, coercion, omission of the duty to prosecute a crime and obstruction of justice. On the other hand, about Eloi Badia, councilor for the environment, plans a possible environmental complaint. And in the case of Ada Colau, the prosecution has opened an investigation for multiple grants that it seems will be difficult to explain.
The Asociation Catalan Lawyers for the Constitution has filed a complaint that will make the mayor have to give explanations before the courts for the millions of euros that it has awarded in recurring grants without any public tender to entities such as DESC Observatory o la Platform for those Affected by the Mortgage.
The mere fact that the prosecution is investigating the mayor for these issues is enough to ask for explanations. The problem is when the explanations given sound like an excuse. The mayor, after hearing the complaint filed by Catalan Lawyers for the Constitution, immediately shielded herself from arguments such as that the municipal grants to the Desc Observatory come from the mandate of the former mayor of CiU Xavier Trias. As if that were something that mattered to the rest of us … What he obviated in his answer was the evolution of the quantities. In 2012, a grant of 25.000 euros. In 2013, 100.000. In the hardest years of the crisis, CiU considered that subsidizing an entity like this was a good idea. I imagine that to try to stop in some way the protests that were being lived in the city over the issue of evictions.
In any case, the commons, upon coming to power, decided not only to maintain the subsidies, but to increase them. They increased to 336.000 euros not counting direct grants for different projects. Strolling through the transparency web is an experience that I recommend to see to what extent thousands of euros are awarded to entities that would be unable to survive without subsidies, dedicating themselves to organizing debates and training that allocate practically all of the subsidies to pay salaries.
The mayor claims that the grants awarded are correct since, according to her, the Secretariat and the municipal legal services maintain that “there is nothing unfavorable” in the award, although there is a general comment from the controller who recalls that the grants should be awarded by public attendance whenever possible. The commons understand that little comment as a recommendation that, obviously, can be ignored if you do not care what it says. In the end, everything seems to indicate that, in the case of the Desc Observatory, these are recurring and annual subsidies, and it does not seem to make much sense to grant them through exceptional procedures.
It has been said many times that it is not only about being honest, but also about looking so. And in this it seems that the mayor has a lot to do. It is not at all aesthetic that she grants recurring grants to the entity for which she worked before living on her current public salary as mayor. Even less when it comes to an entity for which the former councilor also works Gala Pin and in which the former mayor also collaborated, Gerardo Pisarello.
I do not know what the outcome of the lawsuit will be, but I am convinced that as a whole it looks very bad. Could it all be legal? Can. Could it be that despite being legal it makes many of us distrust? As well. And, honestly, at this point I sometimes wonder how the hell they are going to tell all those who have not earned a euro of public money in their life, and who today are suffering to pay their taxes that from the City Council of Barcelona is subsidized to the entity for which the mayor worked before entering the town hall.
I doubt that the legal debate is the most interesting. Here’s something that sounds wrong. Paint it as you paint it. And I doubt that the voters of the commons will like it, who thought they saw Colau and his team an opportunity not to have to read news like this. An opportunity to have governments over which the shadow of corruption did not hover. In the end it seems that they do not apply the rigor they promised, and that should especially annoy those who put their trust in them. Do you remember that of “do what I say but not what I do”? Well that.
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