The Mercè festivities this year have been marked by the unrest from Saturday morning to Sunday, with a stabbing death and acts of vandalism and clashes with half a thousand young people after the concert on Maria Cristina Avenue. The opposition has put what happened as an example of insecurity and misgovernment under the mayor of Ada Colau, and the councilor has described, not just the criticism, but the very information of what happened, as a “defamation” against the image of the city and has wanted to disassociate the crime that claimed a fatality from the parties. Something that was also done in the first instance by the person in charge of municipal security, the councilor for the socialist group Albert Batlleuntil his leader, James Collbonicalled to “not minimize” what happened.
It is true that the general atmosphere in the streets of Barcelona during the Mercè was one of tranquility totally removed from the most excessive performances and riots, much more specific than those that occurred last year after several days of post-pandemic drinking. But the looting of shops and the very serious fact of the loss of a life are facts that must be analyzed in its proper measure, not sidelined so that they do not overshadow a generally positive balance.
In this analysis, one cannot lose sight of the fact that the acts of violence that took place that day they are not an isolated event. They are part of a succession of incidents that, since the end of the confinements due to covid-19, have been happening with less or greater intensity in contexts of nightlife, youth and in public spaces. Some studies, such as those reported in the newspaper today, characterize a increased aggressiveness, irritability, and lack of control that has been installed in some age groups as part of the damage that the circumstances of the pandemic have left on individual mental health and collective coexistence. With outbreaks of violence on the surface, and sometimes directed, in an unusual way so far, towards security forces or even cleaning staff. This is not a specific problem in Barcelona (that same weekend, for example, there was a stabbing with racist motivation in the major festivals of Santa Coloma de Farners), but it is also a problem in Barcelona. Solutions should not be found only in citizen security policies, but they also require, and not incidentally, a police response. And according to the current security model, this corresponds within the scope of the city of Barcelona to both the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Barcelona City Council and its police force, the Guardia Urbana.
Sometimes it gives the impression that the Ministry of the Interior puts itself in profile in terms of its responsibilities in the Catalan capital, and the city council is already doing well to emphasize its leading role, until it becomes uncomfortable for it. But the responsibilities exist. The same Friday, before the assault on the entrances to the Espanyol field during the Morocco-Peru match, the Mossos made an appearance late, arguing that there was a lack of troops due to the deployment for La Mercè. On Saturday, the intervention of the Mossos and Guardia Urbana in Sants failed and the following day a reinforcement of the device was announced, which should not have been less intense the day before. It is legitimate to ask, in addition to the root causes of so much tension in some groups, whether there were errors in the proposed security device. And make them to those who must guarantee that this is not the case.