Since they started school, every day, around thirty minors in Sabadell (Vallès Occidental) occupy tables and chairs in the bars in their neighborhood to do their homework. There is no light at home. The Mossos riot police, required by Endesa, cut it off last June, despite the fact that they were homes in a vulnerable situation accredited by the municipality’s Social Services. They are not the only ones. The Alliance Against Energy Poverty (APE) has verified 87 homes whose electricity has been cut off by the Mossos and Endesa before knowing if they are poor families cared for by social services and that They have the right to a provisional social accountant according to the agreement between the Generalitat and Endesa. “We need to the rights of families are guaranteed and a protocol be clarified urgently,” María Campuzano, spokesperson for APE, implored at a press conference in El Parlament.
The case of Sabadell is probably the one with the most affected: 27 families, many of them with vulnerability reports accredited by social services. But in total, APE activists count 87 homeswith at least twenty minors affected, in Manresa (Bages), Barcelona, Sabadell and Ponts (La Noguera). “At first we thought they were specific cases but we have realized that It is a situation that is repeating itself. We are convinced that there are more affected people who are not reporting it,” says Campuzano.
According to the APE, and also as confirmed by Endesa sources, the action protocol is as follows. Firstly, Endesa detects that electricity fraud is being committed in occupied homes. They decide to cut off the supply due to the obvious risk of fires or electrical accidents that have been confirmed to be fatal. And they ask for the presence of the Mossos d’Esquadra in cases where the safety of the workers carrying out the power cut is at risk. The Mossos do it and the cut is carried out. “But in this whole process there is no document that proves it nor are the rights of these affected people taken into account,” Campuzano complains.
However, according to the historic agreement between Generalitat and Endesa, signed in 2021, vulnerable families accredited by municipal social services, who are waiting for a social rental apartment and have been forced to occupy a home, have the right to have a supply stable, legal and regular electricity supply, as is already done with water companies. Endesa committed to installing social counters in these cases (48 have already been installed in Catalonia according to Endesa).
“They are failing to comply with the agreement and this has direct effects on the physical and mental health, and on the safety of these people: people heat themselves or get light with alternative methods that are much more dangerous and we have real dramas,” says Campuzano, who Remember how many families have suffered fires, some fatal, due to lighting with candles or heating themselves with braziers. Endesa, for its part, points out that what administrations must do is offer social housing to needy families so that they do not have to live in these conditions. Currently, waiting lists for a social apartment can exceed two years.
Meeting between ‘consellers’
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For five months now, activists have been asking for a meeting with the Interior Ministers, Joan Ignasi Elenaand Drets Socials, Carles Campuzano, to propose your solution. “It is an issue that must be addressed: that when the Mossos receive a request from Endesa, instead of sending riot police, check with Drets Socials if there are vulnerable families“Campuzano has requested. “This would allow us to stop the cuts and process the social counters to guarantee the rights of those affected and comply with the agreement,” insists the activist.
In the absence of being able to have this meeting, the APE has maintained a meeting with the deputies who attend the Interior and Social Rights commissions and has given them a report with all the cases that have been found. All groups attended the meeting, except VOX. “It has been very useful and the ERC deputies have committed to making it possible for this meeting that we requested to exist,” Campuzano indicated.