Albert Ballesta faces this April 23 his last day in public administration after more than four decades of career and with a balance sheet that combines positions of maximum responsibility and pending issues. The former director of the Territorial Services of the Departament d'Interior in Girona and former mayor of Girona for 53 days closes his institutional stage at 65 years of age.
His farewell comes with a paradox unusual in such a long career. Ballesta claims operational agreements that involved the Generalitat Firefighters, Mossos d'Esquadra, Rural Agents, mayors, and administrations on both sides of the border, but admits that he did not manage to resolve two highly visible issues in Girona and the coast, the removal of bicycles from the Cadaqués road and the relocation of the Vista Alegre police station.
Ballesta promoted agreements against fires in Girona and Sant Climent Sescebes
During his time in Interior, Ballesta promoted the creation of fire protection strips through coordination between the Diputación, the comarcal councils, and the mayors of the province. That work sought to order a shared response in a territory with recurrent fire risk and with multiple administrations involved.
He also promoted the COOPEREM project, which allowed operational cooperation between French and Catalan firefighters. The initiative even aroused the interest of the University of Nuremberg in the cross-border coordination model.
In Alt Empordà, moreover, he closed an agreement between the military, the Generalitat Firefighters, Mossos d'Esquadra, Rural Agents, and the city council to manage the fire risks derived from shooting exercises at the Sant Climent Sescebes military base, which affected the residents of Vilartolí.
The former mayor admits political mistakes and two projects he could not close
Ballesta also places several concrete failures in his balance sheet. He acknowledges that he did not manage to remove the bicycles from the Cadaqués road and that he could not relocate the Mossos d'Esquadra police station in Vista Alegre because there were no adequate conditions to do so.
His time as mayor of Girona was much shorter than his technical career. He held the position for 53 days and maintains that his resignation was due to a personal decision, not a political one, although he frames that period within a moment of pressure marked by national politics and the rise of Carles Puigdemont as president.
"My grave mistake was not agreeing on political continuity" - Albert Ballesta, former director of the Territorial Services of the Departament d'Interior in Girona and former mayor of Girona
Ballesta explains that he came to the mayoralty at the request of the then president of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Years later, he identifies that handover and his quick departure as one of the episodes that have most conditioned the public perception of his career.
The death of Jordi Comas changed his management at the head of Emergencies
Among the events that most marked him at the head of the emergency services, Ballesta points to the death of businessman Jordi Comas. He places it as a change of direction in his way of managing a responsibility that forced him to live with crises of great public impact.
Recalling it, he retrieves a phrase from Comas himself about police presence and the feeling of protection in moments of tension.
"Every time I saw the light of the Mossos d'Esquadra I felt calm" - Albert Ballesta, former director of the Territorial Services of the Departament d'Interior in Girona and former mayor of Girona, quoting Jordi Comas
Now outside the institutional front line, Ballesta is currently preparing a book titled Burrocràcia about the internal functioning of the administration. The project stems from his accumulated experience in more than four decades of public service.
His last working day in public administration will be April 23, a date with which he will close a stage that included the territorial direction of Interior in Girona and a 53-day stint as mayor of the capital of Girona.