The management of the regularization process for migrant people in Barcelona has opened a new political front in the City Council. The municipal groups of Junts, BComú, ERC, PP and Vox have charged against the PSC government for improvisation and lack of resources after the collapses registered at the service points enabled to process documentation linked to the census.
The tension became visible on Wednesday morning, when one of the centers had to close for a few hours after collapses and fights. The situation occurred amidst a large influx of people trying to access the service, in a context of long waits and saturation.
Criticism from the opposition over the municipal device
From Junts, councilor Neus Munté was one of the harshest voices against the municipal executive.
"The government has failed spectacularly. The queues are not acceptable" - Neus Munté, Junts
"There is no possible excuse" - Neus Munté, Junts
Along the same lines, Marc Serra, of BComú, reproached the local government that it had sufficient margin to prepare the operation.
"He has had at least four months to mount these devices" - Marc Serra, BComú
Also ERC questioned the municipal response. Jordi Castellana warned of the lack of foresight and the management problems that are becoming evident these days.
"One must make an element of criticism of the improvisation we are seeing these days and of the lack of management capacity" - Jordi Castellana, ERC
From the PP, Daniel Sirera maintained that the processing should not fall on the municipal administration.
"It is the State offices that have to manage this improvised regulation" - Daniel Sirera, PP
Vox also denounced the scenario of saturation in the surroundings of Sant Miquel square.
"We are seeing queues down here that are endless" - Gonzalo de Oro, Vox
Reinforcement with new points and an express route by phone
Given the assistance pressure, the Barcelona City Council has enabled four additional attention points without prior appointment to try to speed up the process. At the same time, the rest of the citizen attention offices maintain the processing of documents with prior appointment.
The city council has also activated an express route to obtain the census registration through a free call to 010, with the aim of decongesting in-person attention and accelerating the most urgent procedures.
The opposition's criticisms coincide in the lack of preparation of the municipal device and in the image of long queues that has been repeated at the accesses to the centers. The focus is now on whether the announced reinforcements will serve to normalize attention in the coming days and avoid new episodes of saturation at the points enabled by the City Council.