The closer the municipal elections of the next May 28closer to the rash guess the volcano Badalona Town Hall, in which the former mayor Xavier Garcia Albiol (PP) has played a permanent leading role for more than a decade.
He epicenter of the last political scuffle in the great Catalan municipality between the controversial popular mayor and the current Government local (PSC, ERC, ‘communs’ and Junts) is burning “organized and coordinated” in the words of the current executive, of containers in Badalona.
The origin of the controversy is a two-minute report broadcast by TV3 This Thursday, February 16. In it, Chrisitan Carneado (PSC), sixth deputy mayor of Badalona and responsible for local security, assures that from the municipal government they observe “a certain degree of coordination and organization in burning containers. “Probably,” continues Carneado, “to generate a fictitious climate of insecurity” in the city.
Immediately afterwards, the TV3 reporter adds, denoting causality, that “what has put the government team on alert [sobre la supuesta organización para incendiar containers] is that a detainee in the burning of containers is the son of a member of the Popular Party in the last municipal elections [2019]”.
Lastly, regarding the “suspicions“-says Carneado- of the Government linked to the appearance of videos on social networks without the presence of police forces or firefighters, the journalist explains that “they refer [el Gobierno municipal] to profiles such as that of the former mayor of Badalona Xavier Garcia Albiol”, proclamation before which the Twitter profile appears with incendiary videos of the popular.
The popular link of the detainee
The aforementioned (younger) son is from Raphael Gonzalez, current president of the association Marxants of Badalona. González was in 2019 the number 17 -he was not a councilor- from the Albiol list. he was also collaborator of the popular group in Badalona.
He police report of the container on fire, to which this newspaper has been able to access, is from last January 20 in the Caritg avenue. There is no record in it popular link of the boy’s father, although sources close to the investigation suggest that the boy did mention the political affiliation of his father before the Urban Guard.
Albiol has cataloged “junk politics” the veiled accusations in his account instagram, assuming the increase in containers on fire denounced by the municipal government. First Deputy Mayor Àlex Montornès (ERC)for his part, has insisted in Badalona Comunicació, the city’s public medium, in which “the PP has videos of fires before the rest: He lives very well from burning containers because he wants to build the story of a chaotic city”.
The scourge of the burned containers has been weighing down Badalona for some time: in January, without going any further, an arsonist was jailed after forty arrests for burning containers in Badalona.
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The local executive warns of a “exponential increase” of fires since last summer, especially in the neighborhoods of Sant Roc, Remei and Congrés, with an average of 30 containers -before they were 7 to 12- inflamed per month.
More news from badalona in the local edition of EL PERIÓDICO