Saturday's fatal shooting on Carrer de la Mineria, in the Marina de Port neighborhood of Barcelona, has reopened the political clash over security in the city. The death occurred in an area where Vox gathered a small group of residents on Sunday to protest the municipal response.
The discussion has focused less on what happened on that street and more on the model the City Council says it uses to combat insecurity. While the opposition demands changes after a firearm crime in a residential neighborhood, Mayor Jaume Collboni is facing criticism for a policy that his rivals place far from the daily needs of residents.
Carol Recio reproaches Collboni for prioritizing large events over neighborhoods
In a press conference, Carol Recio, from Barcelona en Comú, criticized Jaume Collboni for maintaining a centralist security model oriented towards large events. Her reproach was directed at the lack of protection in the neighborhoods, with an express mention of what residents in areas like Marina de Port need.
Recio identified this as the main deficit in municipal policy. In her opinion, the City Council has focused on operations linked to large-scale events and has neglected day-to-day community security.
ERC links the debate to drug entry through the Port of Barcelona
Jordi Coronas, from ERC, called for addressing the problem from its origin and pointed to drug entry through the Port of Barcelona as the root of the issue. His approach shifts the focus from Saturday's incident to the networks that fuel drug-related crime.
At the same time, Coronas rejected both immediate calls for resignation and passivity in the face of what happened.
"Let's not create alarmism or start demanding resignations because that fixes nothing, but we also don't propose looking the other way." - Jordi Coronas, ERC representative
His position introduces a double criticism into the municipal debate. On the one hand, he avoids using the crime on Carrer de la Mineria as an argument for political agitation, and on the other hand, he calls for intervention in the drug entry circuit that he locates in the Barcelona port.
Gonzalo de Oro took the protest to Carrer de la Mineria with a small group of residents
Hours after the first reactions, Gonzalo de Oro, leader of Vox, moved to the same Carrer de la Mineria to participate in a protest with a small group of residents. There he railed against the mayor's actions and raised the tone of political criticism after the fatal shooting.
De Oro denounced to the media that Collboni does nothing and maintained that the mayor is more concerned with foreign trips and his confrontation with Vox than with security policies in Barcelona.
"The problem with Barcelona is not Vox, it's crime." - Gonzalo de Oro, leader of Vox
The sequence leaves three different responses after the crime in Marina de Port. Barcelona en Comú questions the distribution of priorities in the security model, ERC calls for action on drug trafficking through the Port of Barcelona, and Vox took its protest to the scene of the shooting.
The rally called by Gonzalo de Oro took place on Carrer de la Mineria, the same spot in Marina de Port where the fatal shooting occurred on Saturday.